The early music vocal ensemble Stile Antico marks its twentieth season by honouring the undisputed master of the style which gives the group its name: Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, whose quincentenary falls in 2025. Palestrina’s stellar career was inextricably entwined with the Papacy and the great churches of Rome for which he composed. This programme explores the music he would have sung at the Sistine Chapel, the changes in his style demanded by the Counter-Reformation, his tragic personal life, and his influence on his successors. The repertoire is sumptuous, including several of Palestrina’s most beloved and timeless motets, gems by other leading composers active in Rome, and a celebratory commission by leading British composer Cheryl Frances-Hoad, written especially for this programme. Frances-Hoad’s A Gift of Heaven is a setting of Palestrina’s own words from the preface to a volume containing the Missa Papae Marcelli.
The Prince of Music series of concerts includes ten performances of A Gift of Heaven in Trondheim, Norway; London, Bath, Oxford, Cambridge and Naunton UK; Valencia and Madrid, Spain; Oxford and Cambridge; New York, Washington DC, Quebec and California
A 20th Birthday Gala Concert at Wigmore Hall will take place on May 12 with a programme of favourite music and conversation with Hannah French, also including the Frances-Hoad commission.
