Victoria 4 Pro

In that golden age of British choral music half a millennium ago, when polyphonic voices soared in the vaulting of the great late-Gothic churches and chapels that seemed to have been built for them to fill, one composer was in especial favour with the royal family: Robert Fayrfax.

Following the freshness and vigour of their quincentenary portrait celebration of Robert Fayrfax, Ensemble Pro Victoria’s second Delphian album brings a similar boldness of approach to a wider-ranging collection, charting some rarely explored territory from a time of great religious, societal and musical change.

On this new recording, Coro Victoria offers a portrait of Alonso Lobo (1555-1617) through a cross-section of his sacred output (his works in Spanish are all lost). The group also illustrates the variety of interpretative practices of the period. The concluding O quam suavis est Domine is sung by a single soprano while the vihuela accompaniment supplies the remaining five parts. Church choirs sang this music in the liturgy, but minstrels also played it during processions, and there was free traffic between sacred and secular contexts.

The Officium defunctorum by Tomás Luis de Victoria, published in 1605, is one of the masterworks of the musical Renaissance, which still moves us with its austerity and expressive power. It was written in the style of a swansong for the funeral rites of the composers patroness, the empress Maria of Austria, sister of Philip II and widow of the emperor Maximilian II. For the first time in a recording, La Grande Chapelle and Schola Antiqua place the work in its liturgical context, restoring the two original days: the vigil for the dead and the mass which concludes with the rite of absolution.

Tómas Luis de Victoria (1548–1611) - Sacred Works - Ensemble Plus Ultra, Michael Noone (2011) {10CD Set Deutsche Grammophon}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (image)+CUE+LOG -> 2.86 Gb | MP3 @320 -> 1.56 Gb
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© 2011 Deutsche Grammophon / ARCHIV Produktion | 0289 477 9747
Classical / Renaissance / Choral

Although the large box and the Sacred Works title might lead you to expect a complete collection of Tomás Luis de Victoria's sacred music, that's not what it is, and in fact some famous pieces, such as the Requiem in six parts, are not included. Instead, conductor Michael Noone lists the criteria for inclusion as follows: the collection focuses on works Victoria composed in Madrid, works that are preserved in manuscripts, works or versions of works that have never been recorded, and works involving an organ or winds, or written in sections that alternate with chant.

Jordi Savall - Maestros del Siglo de Oro - Morales, Guerrero, de Victoria (2009) {3CD Alia Vox AVSA9867 rec 1991-1992}
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© 1991-92, 2009 Alia Vox | AVSA 9836 A/C
Classical / Renaissance / Sacred Music

The liturgy of the Dead – including the Requiem Mass, the Burial Service and the Office of the dead, properly speaking – was granted considerable importance by the Spanish ecclesiastical authorities and by the local church composers from very early times. Throughout the Middle Ages, according to the extant documentary descriptions, the death of a great Lord, such as the Count of Barcelona or the sovereign of any of the Spanish kingdoms of León, Castile, Aragon or Navarre, was usually mourned with impressive ceremonies in which the solemnity of the liturgy was often enhanced by the addition of the planctus, a kind of lengthy optional lament that was sung monophonically and of which several examples have survived.

Presenting First Vespers and the Salve Service as it might been celebrated in October 1617 in the presence of King Philip III and the Duke of Lerma, Paul McCreesh and the Gabrieli Consort & Players bring these early 17th century works to glowing life, the rising and falling cadences of voices mingling with the counterpoint of the magnificent organ of the Cathedral in Lerma.