Upcoming CD release: De Orto and Josquin: Music in the Sistine Chapel ca. 1490.
Cut Circle's forthcoming recording explores music in the Sistine Chapel in the time of Josquin des Prez. This generous 2-CD set features new interpretations of several works by Josquin, including his famous Missa L'homme armé super voces musicales. It also presents premiere recordings of music by Marbrianus de Orto, Gaspar van Weerbeke, and other scandalously understudied late 15th-century composers. All these musicians were employed as singers in the newly built chapel of Pope Sixtus IV. In a space that overlooked frescoes by Botticelli and Perugino, they gathered around massive choirbooks to sing one another's masses and motets. Cut Circle's recording aims to capture the soundscape of the Sistine Chapel as Josquin knew it.
