Byzantium In Rome

CAPELLA ROMANA ARVANITIS

The Abbey of Grottaferrata in the suburban hills of Rome has used the Byzantine Rite for over a millennium since its founding in 1004. Drawn from manuscripts made in the monastery's medieval scriptorium, the music on this recording bears vivid witness to Byzantine musical and liturgical practices antedating the upheavals of the Fourth Crusade's sack of Constantinople in 1204. All but one of the editions for this project were transcribed from medieval manuscripts by Ioannis Arvanitis, who has offered well-documented solutions to the bitter controversies that until recently have prevented the emergence of a viable approach to the performance of pre-modern Byzantine chant. Its performances “like jeweled light flooding the space” (Los Angeles Times), Cappella Romana is a vocal chamber ensemble dedicated to combining passion with scholarship in its exploration of the musical traditions of the Christian East and West, with emphasis on early and contemporary music. Founded in 1991, Cappella Romana’s 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 and its Slavic commonwealth. Each program in some way reflects the musical, cultural, and spiritual heritage of this ecumenical vision.

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