Victoria: Requiem 1605 'Officium defunctorum'

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This is a remarkable recording. In some ways it's like a rediscovery, for here's an approach not too far from Pro Cantione Antiqua at its best and yet that group never recorded the work. The... — Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010 More…

Release Date: 5th Oct 2000
Catalogue No: 4470952
Label: DG Archiv
Length: 59 minutes

Building a Library

October 2005

Highly Recommended

Victoria: Requiem 1605 'Officium defunctorum'

Work length59:37

$16.15

$21.85

William Lyons (accordion)
Gabrieli
Paul McCreesh
Recorded: 1994-10
Recording Venue: Brinkburn Priory, Weldon

Taedet animam meam

Track length2:58

$0.85

$1.15

Introitus: Requiem aeternam

Track length6:15

$0.85

$1.15

Kyrie

Track length3:56

$0.85

$1.15

Oratio - Dominus vobiscum

Track length1:14

$0.85

$1.15

Epistola:Lectio Epistolae beati Pauli ad Thessalon.

Track length2:00

$0.85

$1.15

Graduale: 1. Requiem aeternam - 2. In memoria

Track length2:51

$0.85

$1.15

Tractus: Absolve, Domine

Track length1:58

$0.85

$1.15

Sequentia: Dies irae, dies illa

Track length6:24

$0.85

$1.15

Evangelium: Dominus vobiscum

Track length1:47

$0.85

$1.15

Offertorium: Domine Jesu Christe

Track length5:15

$0.85

$1.15

Prefatio: Per omnia secula seculorum

Track length1:40

$0.85

$1.15

Sanctus: Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus

Track length1:53

$0.85

$1.15

Benedictus

Track length1:11

$0.85

$1.15

Pater Noster - Per omnia secula seculorum

Track length1:14

$0.85

$1.15

Agnus Dei: Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi

Track length2:41

$0.85

$1.15

Communio: Lux aeterna

Track length3:27

$0.85

$1.15

Postcommunio: Dominus vobiscum

Track length1:11

$0.85

$1.15

Motectum: Versa est in luctum cithara mea

Track length4:00

$0.85

$1.15

Absolutio: Responsorium V ad absolutionem post missam

Track length7:42

$0.85

$1.15

Reviews
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Reviews

2010

This is a remarkable recording. In some ways it's like a rediscovery, for here's an approach not too far from Pro Cantione Antiqua at its best and yet that group never recorded the work. The Gabrieli Consort adds chant to the Requiem Mass itself, thus creating more of a context for Victoria's magisterial work.
We have therefore the Epistle and preceding prayer, the Tract, Sequence, Gospel, Preface, Lord's Prayer and Postcommunion in addition to the polyphony; this also means, for example, that the Kyrie is sung nine-fold with alternating chant instead of simply three-fold only in polyphony.
We can presume that the chant was taken from a suitable Spanish source by Luis Lozano Virumbrales, who's an expert in this field and the author of the insert-notes together with Paul McCreesh.
The performance itself is stately and imposing, with a tremendous homogeneity of sound: the use of an all-male choir, together with the added chant, lends it a tangibly monastic feel, though it would have been a fortunate monastery indeed that had falsettists of this quality. About the performance of the chant there are two points of interest: first, that it's doubled, like the polyphony, by a shawm, common Spanish practice at this period, and second, that McCreesh isn't afraid to have the falsettists singing the chant too.
The pace of the polyphony often seems unhurried, but never feels slow, and Westminster Cathedral Choir is faced with the hugely reverberant acoustics of its home building. From the beginning the singing is involving and incarnate, but the real magic comes nearer the end: from the Agnus Dei onwards one feels that the Gabrieli Consort have really got the measure of the music and is allowing it to speak through them. The final great responsory, the 'Libera me', is performed with heart stopping power and conviction.
McCreesh's approach shows how the Mass would have fitted into and complemented the liturgical framework without ever losing its own internal power and drama. A revelatory disc.

Victoria: Requiem 1605 'Officium defunctorum'

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