Search - A Capella Portuguesa, Rees, Farr :: Masters Of The Royal Chapel, Lisbon

Here's an interesting program: a complete Mass for the Nativity of the Virgin as it might have been celebrated in Lisbon's Royal Chapel circa 1635. The central work is the glowing six-voice "Missa O soberana luz" of Filipe de Magalhaes, evidently based on a lost villancico (a composition in Spanish on a sacred theme). In the 17th century, instrumental music or motets often replaced most of the chant in high Mass for a feast day; thus, several motets (including Guerrero's lovely "Ave virgo sanctissima") and a selection of Portuguese organ music are incorporated alongside the chant. Owen Rees's A Capella Portuguesa is on their best form here in one of the finest discs to come out of the rediscovery of Portuguese sacred music. --Matthew Westphal