“Full throated, full bodied, full of joy, these singers breathe passionate life into a rare and rarefied repertory. You’ll be willingly transported to their magical island. Bravo.” —Susan Hellauer (Anonymous 4) The Crusades brought to Cyprus French kings, whose imported musical traditions flourished alongside those of their Greek subjects. The vibrancy of their Mediterranean soundscape is captured in this recording, which traverses the diverse range of sacred music heard during the fifteenth century in Nicosia’s Orthodox and Catholic cathedrals: Greek and Latin hymns celebrating the divine patronage of St. Hilarion of Gaza, lavish prayers for French royalty set to Ars Nova polyphony from the codex Torino J.II.9, and virtuosic Byzantine chants by Constantinopolitan and Cypriot composers. Vocal ensemble Cappella Romana combines passion with scholarship in its exploration of early and contemporary music of the Christian East and West. Its name refers to the medieval Greek concept of the Roman oikoumene (inhabited world), which embraced Rome and Western Europe as well as the Byzantine Empire of Constantinople (“New Rome”) and its Slavic commonwealth.
