Angela Ambrogetti reports the kind of news that other Vaticanistas seem to think too trivial to report on. But she does not once refer to the news Sandro Magister broke late last year that Salesian Fr. Marco Palombella will be named soon to replace the current director of the Sistine Chapel Choir.
The Pope and the Sistine choir:
A traditional New Year's meeting
but no mention of a new director
Translated from
Jan. 5, 2009
The Pope greets Mons. Liberto.
For the fifth year in a row, Pope Benedict XVI gave a New Year audience to the members and director of the Sistine Chapel Choir.
it was like a family gathering, with a theological reflection in music offered to the Holy Father by the choir under Mons. Giuseppe Liberto.
'In simplicitate cordis et in simplicitate artis', according to Liberto in his greeting to the Pope, observing that "Every Christmas, the Church is re-evangelized".
It was a concept picked up by the Holy Father in his impromptu remarks after the performance, commenting on the choice of the musical numbers as a triple reading of Advent - historically, eschatologically and as mystery.
As Mons. Liberto introduced it: ""The historical Advent is depicted by Tomas Luis de Victoria's motet
O magnum mysterium. The eschatological is portrayted by the counterpoint in Pierluigi Palstrina's
Quando veneris iudicare, while the mystery of Advent is evoked by the motet that I composed for the concert held in Brescia before your pastoral visit last November -
Unus panis, unum corpus, based on the beautiful text of St. Paul in the first Letter to the Corinthians, which sings of the mystery of the sacramental Church".
In addition, a new motet composed by Liberto,
Bonum est confiteri Domino, taken from Psalm 92, was performed by a boy soloist in dialog with the choir. To end the concert, traditional Christmas carols.
Mons. Liberto also presented the Pope with a working CD,
Vivere in Cristo, a sort of ecumenical itinerary through liturgical songs. It includes 5 songs from teh orthodox liturgy and 5 motets by Liberto as performed by the Blagovest Choir of Moscow at the Catholic Cathedral in Moscow at an international festival of Musica Sacra sponsored by the archbishop of Moscow last year.
The audience ended with the Pope greeting each of the choir members and exchanging small talk with them.
To a boy who had one hand in a cast, the Pope asked what happened. The boy said, "I fell". Mons. Liberto commented, "But the important thing is to get up again", And the Pope remarked, "That's true. Like did on Christmas Eve!"
In simplicate cordis!
Int eh afternoon, the Pope's brother, Mons. Georg Ratzinger, visited the Choir at their headquarters behind the Church of Sant'Andrea della Valle, where their classrooms and rehearsal rooms are located.
This, too, was marked by a familial atmosphere and the simplicity of an encounter between the young musicians and a master of their art with a special 'musical ear for God', to use an expression from Benedict XVI's Christmas Eve homily.
Jan. 10, 2009
P.S.
Sandro Magister's blog entry today concedes it looks as if Mons. Palombella is not going to be named any time soon to be director of the Sistine Chapel choir. Magister cites the episodes described by Ambrogetti on her blog five days earlier, and then says bluntly - "Palombella's ascendancy has collapsed".
But he still faults Benedict XVI - despite his musical taste and knowledge - for tolerating the deficiencies of Mons. Liberto and the Sistine Chapel Choir.
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 11/01/2010 00:50]