York Early Music Christmas Festival - Event 8

Looking Bach to Palestrina

A celebration of Palestrina’s 500th anniversary would not be complete without looking at how hugely influential his music has been on subsequent generations, among them the towering figure JS Bach. As well as making his own performing edition of Palestrina’s Missa sine nomine, Bach also performed works by Palestrina’s Italian contemporaries from the anthology Florilegium portense with his choir at the Thomaskirche in Leipzig, singing them so often that the books had to be replaced in 1729 as thy had been ‘sung to pieces’!

We hear these alongside festive motets by Palestrina and works from Heinrich Schütz’s seminal Geitliche Chormusik, which also wears its Italian influence prominently and is dedicated to the city of Leipzig and the musicians of the Thomanerchor.

“The performances are models of discretion and musical taste, every texture clear, every phrase beautifully shaped” The Guardian