El Cant de la Sibil-La - Mallorca (1999)/ València 1400-1560

Hybride SACD, ook op gewone CD-spelers afspeelbaar. "Just as the Procession of the Prophets used to be a familiar feature of the Christmas liturgy all over Europe, so the Song of the Sibyl was formerly sung with great solemnity, in some of the great Spanish cathedrals and monasteries. A boy chorister or a young novice performed the part during the Office of Christmas Matins. Indeed, it can still be heard today in Majorca, on Christmas Eve, in the cathedral of Palma and elsewhere. This recording presents in parallel two versions of the Cantus Sibille, one taken from the Catalan version found in a fifteenth-century choirbook from the Convento de la Concepcion in Palma, the other, a reconstruction based on a four-part, harmonized version of the refrain from the mid-sixteenth century Bartolome Carceres, the text and the music of the stanzas culled from various Catalan sources. The singing of the stanzas is dramatic and the use of instruments discreet." (Mary Berry, Gramophone)