Zelenka De Profundis Miserere Requiem

Par l'Ensemble Vocal De Profundis, dir. Cristina García Banegas. L'œuvre de Francisco López Capillas constitue, sans aucun doute, le sommet du style polychoral baroque en Nouvelle-Espagne. Directement inspirée de Clément Janequin, sa « Missa de Batalla » fait s'opposer avec fracas les chœurs et les percussions. Elle est, ici, entourée des plus belles pages des compositeurs européens qui étaient ses contemporains, et que l'on chantait également dans les cathédrales de Puebla et de Mexico dont l'édification venait à peine de se terminer. Toute la somptuosité sonore de l'ancien et du Nouveau Monde.

Overshadowed by such prominent Spanish Renaissance composers as Cristóbal de Morales, Francisco Guerrero, and Tomás Luis de Victoria, Juan Esquivel was considered a minor and fairly obscure figure until his reputation was elevated by inclusion in the revised edition of Robert Stevenson’s Spanish Cathedral Music in the Golden Age. Today, his works are increasingly appreciated by modern scholars and listeners thanks to the discovery in 1973 of a large volume of Esquivel’s music, published in 1613, which included masses, psalms, Magnificats, hymns, a Te Deum, a Requiem, and numerous antiphons and responsories.

The Bernardino de Ribera whose works are recorded here, all but one for the first time, is all but unknown; he is not to be confused with the Spanish-Mexican composer Bernardino de Ribera Sahagún. He was active in the city of Toledo, Spain, a generation before Tomás Luis de Victoria, whom he taught and influenced. His obscurity is due to vandalism rather than to any issue of musical quality: the splendid manuscript that forms the main source for his music was cut up by someone who wanted the illuminations, and on the reverse of those were many sections of Ribera's works.

Although Lully never held any post in the Chapelle du Roi, his influence on the development of the grand motet, so emblematic of the Grand Siècle, was of decisive importance. He wrote imposing motets celebrating the glory of God and the King for the great ceremonies at court. Of the many royal funerals, that of Queen Marie-Thérèse in 1683 was among the most grandiose. Lully’s Dies iræ and De profundis were sung there. But his most celebrated motet was undoubtedly his Te Deum, which rang out for the first time in 1677 and became the king’s favourite.

Victoria is probably the best known Spanish composer of the Renaissance. His intense, emotional music, is considered the peak of the Golden Age of Spanish polyphony and his works are sung by every and all vocal ensemble worldwide. The perfection of his style and the serene and austere beauty of his output have made of Victoria a favourite among the music lover, who will possibly find it very interesting to have this masterpiece available, intensely sung by a Spanish chamber choir.

It's been over 10 years since the last edition, this new volume of "La Musica De Los Dioses" subtitled "Requiem" find fourteen original pieces that try to provide a spectrum of influences whose origins come from the most remote places on the planet. Chill flamenco, the mystical sound, the Eastern atmospheres and Classic, Chill Out and Ambient. They combine to offer an album with unique identity of its kind. Sounds and influences combine to create a timeless atmosphere, where ethnic and electronic sounds offer a whole multi-cultural sound spectrum. On this occasion La Musica De Los Dioses offers sounds, percussions and voices of the Amazon forest, the tropical islands and Indonesia or multiple regions of Africa, Gregorian chants, sounds with "Alma" converge here with the influences of very different cultures and current rates. Each of the pieces is a marvel of harmony and instrumentation with eternal stories of love and passion.