Sistine Chapel Choir & Massimo Palombella

The Sistine Chapel Choir in Rome has been one of the most famous choral ensembles in the Western world for centuries. The young Josquin Desprez was a member in the 1460s (and apparently carved his name in the chapel wall while he was there). The choir is a veritable icon of Catholic musical tradition, and it forswore the use of castrati in treble parts only in 1903. Yet its recorded legacy is sparse. The choir's history begins in the first centuries of Christianity with the emergence of a "schola cantorum," a group of singers who lived and worked together, and were associated...