(Photo Credit：Michael Vogl)

Instead of the festive sparkle one might expect from a 40th anniversary, the 2025 opening concert of Regensburg’s Tage Alter Musik, given by the famous Regensburger Domspatzen (Cathedral choir) with La Cetra’s period brass players, took a more solemn route, leaning into the weight of its occasion. In the majestic setting of Regensburg Cathedral, where liturgical music has resounded for over centuries, the tone was ceremonial, almost processional—anchored not in showmanship, but in the city’s own living musical institution.

Despite the triple milestone—40 years of the festival, 1050 of the Domspatzen, and Palestrina’s 500th birthday—the heart of the program was Hans Leo Hassler’s “Missa octo vocum.” This choice may seem unexpected, given Palestrina’s stature, but acoustics left little room for denser polyphony. In a cathedral where resonance lingers for nearly four seconds, Hassler’s spacious double-choir textures—shaped by his Venetian training—fared better than Palestrina’s interwoven lines. By embedding the mass within a pseudo-liturgical arc, alternating vocal and instrumental pieces around its ordinary sections, the concert refocused on sacred ritual over concert flourish. Palestrina’s legacy, meanwhile, was honored through select motets that framed the evening in more intimate terms.

In the relatively compact “Kyrie” and “Gloria,” the Domspatzen managed to project Hassler’s textures with clarity, thanks to deliberately slower tempo, elongated phrasing and tight ensemble discipline. But as the mass progressed—particularly in the long-breathed “Credo”—the space’s acoustic limitations became more apparent. With reverberation smearing inner voices and dynamics kept at a safe middle register, musical tension often sagged. Expressive contrast was largely sacrificed for intelligibility, and while the “Sanctus” fared better due to its built-in sectional contrast, much of the performance remained constrained by architecture more than shaped by interpretation.

La Cetra’s period brass, though dynamically cautious, added warmth and weight. But like the singers, they were boxed in by the cathedral’s long decay time. Even in Gabrieli’s signature “canzonas”—normally playgrounds for rhythmic drive and flourish—the players avoided embellishment and stayed within a narrow volume range. The result was a blended, unified sound, but one where articulation blurred and antiphonal brilliance was all but flattened.

Surrounding Hassler’s mass were motets that situated him in a broader choral landscape. Motets by Palestrina—”Haec dies” and the rarely performed “Incipit lamentatio” for eight voices—formed the emotional and stylistic poles of the evening. “Haec dies” glowed with rhythmic buoyancy and luminous consonance, whereas the “Lamentatio” unfolded in dark, suspended phrases that hung in the air like incense. The choir handled this contrast with poise, proving that even in the absence of subtle articulation or dynamic inflection, atmosphere could still be shaped through contour and harmonic shading. This expressive framing—placing joy and lament side by side—was arguably the most compelling curatorial gesture of the evening.

Another memorable point came with Palestrina’s “Sicut cervus”—perhaps the most refined performance of the night. Sung a cappella, the piece was rendered with considerable intimacy and detail. The vocal lines rose and fell in long, sighing arcs that perfectly captured the motet’s quiet yearning. It was in this smaller, purer frame that the Domspatzen’s vocal strengths were most clearly revealed.

Elsewhere, Gabrieli’s “Jubilate Deo,” Monteverdi’s “Cantate Domino,” and Croce’s “Buccinate in Neomenia” brought flashes of ceremonial splendor. But again, the need for sonic control often dulled their dramatic edge. The Venetian brass timbres enriched the overall texture without becoming dominant, but the restraint—understandable though it was—blunted the theatrical potential of these works.

Though acoustic clarity was often compromised, this uniquely structured concert carried genuine interpretive weight. The program thoughtfully returned to the choir’s ritual origins, foregrounding sacred function over concert display. For an ensemble more often heard in repertoire stretching from Bach to Schubert and Mendelssohn, this performance marked a meaningful and successful departure—an exploration of its oldest foundations in a setting that demanded both discipline and deference.