Domenico Cardinal Bartolucci

"One of the four new cardinals 'ad honorem' of the next consistory will be Domenico Bartolucci," reminds Sandro Magister, "remarkably robust at 93, previously the 'perpetual' director of the Sistine Chapel choir that accompanies the pope's liturgies" — Twenty-four New Cardinals, Tailor Made for the Pope. More:

Benedict's conferral of the purple on him looks like an unambiguous rehabilitation of this preeminent maestro of Gregorian and polyphonic liturgical music, treacherously expelled from the direction of the Sistine choir in 1997 by the directors of pontifical ceremonies at the time.

What a shame that since then, without him, the choir of the Sistine Chapel has fallen to abysmal levels. Nor is there any reason to hope for a worthy rebirth in the appointment as its director, a few days ago, of Salesian Fr. Massimo Palombell, a protege of the cardinal secretary of state.

We heard some of his music the other day — Domenico Bartolucci's Jubilate Deo, Ave Maria & Sicut Cervus, Rossini Chamber Choir, Orchestra Sinfonica G. Rossini, Simone Baiocchi.