Search - Gregorian Chant, Tomas Luis de Victoria, David Hill :: Victoria: Requiem - Officium defunctorum (1605)

LUX IN TENEBRIS.

quia-nihil-sum | Inverness,Scotland. | 11/13/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is a fabulously atmospheric recording of Victoria's serenely sad and beautiful,"Officium defunctorum" of 1605.The quite excellent Westminster Cathedral Choir under their Master of Music,David Hill do perfect justice to this marvellously wrought composition,which positively radiates beauty from practically every note that enters the priviliged ear of the listener.If you are entirely new (lucky old you--for a start !)to this mordantly (though never depressingly so) glorious masterpiece:can I offer you the following analogy,by way of helping you to understand and appreciate the performance as it unfolds through your speakers or headphones ? If you could imagine yourself as a lone traveller in a winter landscape,and suddenly you were beset by a raging blizzard,which leaves you completely disorientated and blind.You stumble on through the swirling,inpenetrable gloom for what seems like an eternity,and before long your path has been completely obliterated,and you realise that you are completely lost.Then,just as you are about to give up hope,out of the darkness looms the vast bulk of a Cathedral,it's spires lost in the lowering clouds.Thankfully the massive oak doors are slightly ajar,and you gratefully slip inside to take refuge from the howling wind,and horizontally driven snow.Shutting the door you are left in absolutely becalmed silence and darkness,which seems almost unreal, considering the maelstrom that rages outside.You stamp the snow from your boots,and blow on your hands for warmth,but then you realise that the interior of the Cathedral is not as dark as you first thought,and far up the nave a few candles,only just illuminate the faces of a small group of men.One of them begins to intone in a reverentially,penitential voice,"Credo quod Redemptor meus vivit" (I know that my Redeemer liveth),and is sonorously joined by a few of his companions."Ah,you think to yourself,I've come upon the service of matins".It is such an arresting sound after the unfettered screams of nature,that you can't help but creep a little further up the aisle,and sidle quietly into the shadowy corner of a pew.The monks finish their brief responsory,and you soon see that they are not alone but accompanied by a group of young boys who magically break out into the flowing lines of the,"Taedet animam meam vitae meae" (My soul is weary of my life).What a fantastic control of sound from such young throats you think,and at last some warmth is starting to return to your near frozen extremities,even though the vast space appears to be without artificial heat of any kind.The monks pick up the plainchant of ,"Ego sum resurrectio et vita" (I am the Resurrection and the life",and then solemnly intonate the fairly severe and austere lines of the "Canticle of Zachary".They finish with a tender,"Requiescant in pace,Amen",and you perhaps feel you have intruded long enough,and start to make motions to go.But before you can rise to your feet,a single boy sings a confidently echoing,"Requiem" which positively roots you to the spot.He is joined by his peers on "aeternam",and then at the word "dona", it is as though an angelic hand has thrown a power switch in Heaven,and the entire ecclesiastical edifice is instantly bathed in a radiant,supernatural light,allowing you to see for the first time the superbly,soaring architecture that previously lay hidden.All thoughts of leaving are now banished from your mind,and you sit there absoutely transfixed by the beautiful sound emanating so effortlessly from these amazing choristers.When the mass proper has oh so sadly ended,you see that some people in mourning clothes have gathered around a memorial of some kind,and as they do so the assembled choir solemnly sing the tear-provoking funeral motet,"Versa est in luctum cithara mea" (My harp is turned to mourning).Surely they must be commemorating someone of tremendous stature,considering the astounding and awe-inspiring music that their death has engendered ? The Absolution then follows to bestow a fnal blessing and benediction on all present,and there is a wonderful moment as the boys launch their last "Kyrie Eleison",not just into the vault of the church,but into the very vault of Heaven,or so it seems.And so it is over,and the Choir and mourners file slowly out,leaving you to an empty,quiet and cold building once more.Outside the blizzard has subsided,leaving a winter landscape of a pristine,white freshness that is absolutely dazzling to the eye.You resume your original journey,but now you are no longer the same person who started out that morning;something has changed,and although you may not realise exactly what at first,you do know now that wherever shadows appear to be the deepest and blackest,there is a light of blinding,brilliance to banish them forever."

Divine

11/06/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I am a big fan of choral Renaissance music, and I have to say it does not get any better then this. Tomas Luis de Victoria, is generally regarded as Spain's premier composer of the Renaissance, and rightfully so. An ordained priest, Victoria was a supreme master of the polyphonic art, as he infused his music, with chromaticism and emotion beyond that of Italian composers more closely guided by Roman conservatism. His Requiem Mass and Responsories for Tenebrae are some of the most beautiful pieces of music ever written, rivaling Palestrina's Missa Papae Marcelli and Cardoso's Requiem Mass. I cannot express in words how moving this music is. The music is so tranquil yet so powerful at the same time. The westminster Cathedral Choir under the guidance of David Hill is superb. In my opinion, it is one of the finest choral music ensembles in the world. If you do enjoy Victoria's Requiem Mass I would also suggest Frei Manuel Cardoso's Requim Mass. It is somewhat different then Victoria's, but just as beautiful."

THE renaissance requiem

H. Greenwich | 07/08/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Please note that there are confusing inconsistencies on this page. The track selections above provided by Amazon are the ones found on the CD. However, where Amazon states above "On this CD," the tracks refer not to this CD, but to a recording of Victoria's earlier requiem, Missa pro defunctus first published in 1583. The reviewer below also mistakenly states that this CD is Missa pro defunctus. This CD, is, in fact, Officium Defunctorum, published in 1605.



That cleared up, this requiem mass is undoubtedly my favorite of the renaissance era (albeit late renaissance). Before Bach and the baroque period, composers had a different set of harmonic goals that allowed for a beauty different than anything produced in later periods. This is a great example of that. There are moments of sumptous sadness that bring tears to my eyes. Although this recording is superb in its own right, I prefer the passion and clarity of the Gabrieli Consort's recording. (I have not heard the Tallis Scholar's recording, however.) For that reason, I give it four stars instea of five."