Playlist: What music were the popes listening to?

ThosePlaylist before the conclave –What music were listening to the last popes?

Jean-Paul II Friend of Bob Dylan, Benoît XVI performer of Mozart, François Fan d’Elvis… Focus on the musical favorites of Pontifes sovereigns.

Posted today at 8:40 p.m.

They are readily thought to be lulled with religious music. It is sometimes true, but the popes have musical tastes going far beyond the works of Bach and Palestrina, loving, like FrançoisItalian variety or vintage American rock. While the conclave To designate the new successor to Saint-Pierre is organized in Rome, we review the playlists of the last popes.

John Paul II (1978-2005)

This pope has not mentioned much about his relationship to music, being above all a great theater and poetry lover. But the artists he agreed to attend nevertheless give an idea of ​​the diversity of his musical tastes. From the early 1980s, the chief Herbert von karajan thus manages to convince him to set up a large concert of sacred works at the Saint-Pierre Basilica From Rome.

The event was materialized on June 29, 1985: before Jean-Paul II and some 10,000 cardinals, the Austrian maestro led the Vienna Philharmonic in the “Mass of the Coronation” of Mozart, which the sovereign pontiff appreciated particularly. The historical representation is even recorded by the classic label German gramophone. But the Pope was not only open to the celestial heights of religious music.

A year earlier, he had thus vibrated in front of a young singer of 16 years: a certain Celine Dion. So on a trip to CanadaJean-Paul II attended a concert organized in his honor at the Montreal Olympic stadium. It was the virtuoso in the making that had been chosen to interpret the title “a dove” before 65,000 people, a hymn to peace being part of its very first album.

Rocker glasses

Later, the sovereign pontiff had dubbed Bob Dylan During a concert organized in 1997 in Bologna. A not so surprising understanding when you know that the Pope, who had notably been actor in his youth, was deemed to have the easy contact with the artists, even coming from musical genres a priori far from the Catholic liturgy.

We also remember his meeting with the singer Bono From the U2 group in 1999, during one of these Christmas concerts that John Paul II liked to play Rome. He had even tried the emblematic rocker glasses, offering photographers present an anthology shot.

Benoît XVI (2005-2013)

Still Cardinal at that time, Joseph Ratzinger opposed the arrival of Bob Dylan during the 1997 concert in Bologna, then desired by Jean-Paul II. The man of the church judged the American singer-songwriter too “bad” prophet to represent Catholic values, as he explained in his autobiography. Yet, Benoît XVI was far from fleeing the cursed rockers and poets.

During his pontificate, “L’Osservatore Romano” published a list of ten albums validated by the Vatican. The selected artists can surprise: we come across Michael Jackson And its very little peaceful “thriller”, Pink Floyd And its very hovering pagan trip “The Dark Side of the Moon” or Oasis And his irreverent “Morning Glory”. Small revolution in Rome, the list also mentions the avant-garde “revolver” of Beatlesa group that had long been banished by the Vatican because of words deemed blasphemous of John Lennon.

The pope plays Mozart

Despite this proof of openness, Benoît XVI was first of all an enthusiast of classical music. Pianist himself, he notably liked to play pieces of Mozart, that he knew by heart. This composer “still moves me so intensely, because his music is so bright and at the same time so deep. It is never a simple entertainment. The whole tragic of humanity is contained there, “he wrote in” the salt of the earth “in 2005.

Among his favorite works? “There is a” clarinet quintet “that I really like. And then of course the “coronation mass”, which I appreciate since my childhood. I particularly like the “requiem”. This is the very first concert in which I was, at Salzbourg. And then “a little night music”. We were trying to play it with four hands on the piano when we were children. Without forgetting “the enchanted flute”, he confided during an interview. Another favorite of the Pope is Bach’s “Mass in Si Minor”.

This intellectual has also written several philosophical and theological texts on works he venerated, including studies on the “winter journey” of Schubertthe “symphony n^o 6 »by Bruckner or La« 9^e»The Beethoven.

François I (2013-2025)

Fleeing luxury and abundance, Pope Francis was nonetheless reached a acute collectority concerning music. An almost compulsive music lover that he did not try to hide: paparazzié during his visit to a Roman vinyl shop, the sovereign pontiff devoted an almost … divine love to records.

In an interview with the “Corriere della will be”, Gianfranco Ravasi, pontifical advisor for culture, revealed that François owned nearly 2,000 albums in his personal nightclub, appreciating CD as much as the good older LP. This advisor had even published on X (Twitter at the time) a photo of a few discs gleaned by the Pope during his excursions, testifying to fairly eclectic musical tastes.

Among the titles, we recognized an album of his famous Argentinian compatriot Astor Piazzolla, notably known for his tangos, as well as the LP “Nessuno Mi Può Giudicare” by the Italian singer Caterina Caselli, released in 1966. Always on the side of the variety, the sovereign pontiff was worship Elvis Presleyof which he had raised 25 Gospel discs, and venerated the big Edith Piaf.

CDs as a gift

But François was also known to be a connoisseur of classical music. Angela Merkelwho had heard of this papal melomania, came to visit him by bringing him as a gift the integral of the German chief Wilhelm Furtwängler, whose engravings of the “symphonies” of Beethoven and the “ring” of Wagner.

Clara Haskillegendary Romanian pianist who came to take refuge in Switzerland, was also one of his favorite performers, perhaps for his pure and internalized game of Mozart.

The pope was indeed a fan of the Austrian composer, judging his “Messe in minor” “incomparable”. Anyone surprisingly coming from a sovereign pontiff, he revelled by many other major opus of sacred Christian music, including the emblematic “Passion according to Saint Matthew” by J. S. Bach or vocal works by the Estonian composer Arvo Pärt.

Nicolas Poinsot is a journalist for the culture and society section. Previously, this art historian has written for more than ten years for the magazine Femina and the Cahiers Sciences et culture du Matin Sunday.More info

Did you find an error? Please report it to us.

0 comments