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We have decided to don the sackcloth and ashes and search out the best recordings of the haunting setting of Psalm 51: Allegri’s Miserere. But what are the best recordings of this great Holy Week choral work?<\/strong><\/p> The title \u2018Allegri\u2019s Miserere\u2019 only tells half the story. While Gregorio Allegri did indeed write his setting of the penitential Psalm 51 for Rome\u2019s Sistine Chapel in the 1630s, the \u2018standard\u2019 version we are familiar with is probably some way removed from the composer\u2019s original thoughts.<\/p> Allegri\u2019s own music was relatively simple, alternating sections by a five-voice main choir and a four-voice solo choir, the latter of whom would then add skilfully improvised ornaments (\u2018abbellimenti\u2019) \u2013 the fearsome high C faced by the treble or soprano soloist today probably emerged as a result of such improvisation over the years.<\/p> Proud of its choral jewel, the Papacy forbade publication and performance of the Miserere<\/em> outside the Vatican, hence the 14-year-old Mozart<\/strong><\/a> needing to rely on his own ears to make a copy of the score after just one hearing in 1770.<\/p> The feat is not quite as impressive as it seems as, over its 12 or so minutes, the Miserere<\/em> essentially repeats the same music five times over, its sections divided by passages of plainchant.<\/p> With any recording of Allegri\u2019s Miserere<\/em>, the listener\u2019s attention is inevitably drawn to, above all, how well the soloist tackles those top Cs. It\u2019s not so much reaching the note itself that is so difficult but keeping what lies either side under control \u2013 swooping up to the C and\/or then smudging the tricky quaver ornament on the way down are both hard to avoid.<\/p>The story of Allegri’s Miserere<\/h2>
The best recordings of Allegri’s Miserere<\/h2>
1. Alison Stamp (soprano); The Tallis Scholars\/Peter Phillips <\/h3>