Preview A Byzantine Emperor at King Henry’s Court

January 19–22, Cappella Romana performs “A Byzantine Emperor at King Henry’s Court” live in Eugene, Seattle, and Portland. January 20, Cappella Records releases the premiere recording of the program, and you can preview both today! Listen to three of the works from the concert and recording on Apple Music and More:

“Cappella Romana’s founder and music director, scholar and musicologist Alexander Lingas, has deeply researched what is known of both the Byzantine (eastern) and Latin (western) liturgical Christmas music of the time and assembled on this album, selections from both traditions that are known or likely to have been performed at those Christmas services in 1400. Oh, to have been a plague-carrying flea on the that wall. Failing that, we have this album, performed and recorded in Cappella Romana’s usual superb quality.”

–Jon Sobel, Blog Critics

Experience musical worlds colliding against the backdrop of international politics and war. Go back in time to 1400, when Byzantine Emperor Manuel II Palaiologos, seeking foreign aid for besieged Constantinople, spent Christmas in the court of English King Henry IV.

Under the direction of Alexander Lingas, the same men and women of Cappella Romana who brought you the Lost Voices of Hagia Sophia bestseller (44 weeks on Billboard) bring to life medieval Byzantine and Sarum chant and royal ceremonial performed by two very different historic choirs, one singing in Greek and the other in Latin, as they celebrated the feast of Christmas at London’s Eltham Palace.

New discoveries, researched and led by Alexander Lingas, reveal the mix of liturgical music – in Greek and in Latin – that was performed at this double-royal occasion on Old-Style Christmas (modern date of 7 January).