Festa: Mottetti, Vols. 1 & 2

Featuring

Kees Boeke
Sveva Martin
Daniela Perlo
Anna Traversa
Alberto Allegrezza
Davide Longo

Fabrizio Longo
Paolo Issoglio
Ermanno Lo Gatto
Cantica Symphonia
Costanzo Festa

Did you know?

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Composer Biography

Festa's last decade of life was marked by growing health problems, including gout, which also led to a reduction in his compositional activity.

Composition History

Festa is credited with being among the first in Italy to recognize the expressive potential of the madrigal, a poetic-musical synthesis that would shape the future of music.

Composer Biography

Costanzo Festa, the composer, is recognized as the greatest Italian composer of the first half of the 16th century, comparable to the dominant Franco-Flemish masters in contrapuntal technique.

Recording & Production

This album, "Mottetti vol.1" and "Mottetti vol.2", was recorded in two different locations: the Salone del Castello della Costa di Cumiana (TO) in 1996 and the Chiesa della B. V. Maria del Monte Carmelo al Colletto, Roletto - Pinerolo (TO) in 2000 and 2001.

Composition History

The most important source for Festa's motets is the Sistine Chapel Ms.20, meticulously transcribed by the head copyist Johannes Parvus while Festa was still alive.

Composer Biography

Costanzo Festa served in the Sistine Chapel, one of Europe's most famous musical institutions, and his music constitutes a significant body of work in its Vatican codices, second only to collections by Josquin and Palestrina.

Cultural Impact

Costanzo Festa's international fame was such that François Rabelais included his name in an imaginary choir of great musicians in his work Pantagruel.