Fux & Kerll: Requiems

Vox Luminis’s consummate mastery of polyphonic textures, plangent sonorities and contoured phrasing is profoundly beautiful; the five soloists and five additional ‘ripieno’ singers declaim text... — Gramophone Magazine, November 2016 More…

Release Date: 19th Aug 2016
Catalogue No: RIC368
Label: Ricercar
Length: 75 minutes

Presto Recording of the Week

12th August 2016
Gramophone Magazine

November 2016

Editor's Choice
Presto Recordings of the Year

Finalist 2016

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Kerll: Missa pro defunctis

Work length34:41

$8.45

$10.40

$12.80

L'Achéron, Vox Luminis
Recorded: October-November 2015
Recording Venue: Église Saint-Jean-Baptiste, France

Introitus

Track length5:26

$1.05

$1.30

$1.60

Kyrie

Track length2:01

$1.05

$1.30

$1.60

Sequenza

Track length13:34

$2.15

$2.60

$3.20

Offertorium

Track length3:57

$1.05

$1.30

$1.60

Sanctus - Beneditus - Hosanna

Track length4:26

$1.05

$1.30

$1.60

Agnus Dei

Track length2:34

$1.05

$1.30

$1.60

Communio (Lux aeterna)

Track length2:43

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$1.30

$1.60

Fux: Kaiserrequiem

Work length40:30

Album only

Scorpio Collectif, Vox Luminis

Introitus (Requiem aeternam - Te decet hymnus - Requiem aeternam)

Track length6:47

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$1.30

$1.60

Kyrie

Track length3:12

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Sequenza

Track length15:06

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Offertorium (Domine Jesu Christe - Sed signifer - Quam olim Abrahae)

Track length5:00

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$1.30

$1.60

Sanctus - Beneditus - Hosanna

Track length3:32

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$1.30

$1.60

Agnus Dei

Track length1:54

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Communio (Lux aeterna)

Track length4:59

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Recording of the Week, Lionel Meunier and Vox Luminis perform Requiems by Fux and Kerll

12th August 2016

David listens to the Grammy Award-winning ensemble's recording of two rarely-heard Austrian Requiems.

This recording presents two Austrian requiems of totally different character. Johann Joseph Fux wrote his Requiem in 1720 for the funeral of Eleonora von Neuburg, widow of the Holy Roman Emperor Leopold II. Composed by a musician reputed for his theoretical skill, it impresses with the quality of the polyphonic writing combined with a very rich instrumental fabric comprising cornetts, trombones and bassoon in addition to violins, instruments also benefiting from concertante interventions. This requiem was played on numerous occasions for official ceremonies, including again for the funeral of Karl VI in 1740. On the other hand, Johann Caspar Kerll’s version is presented in a much more intimist way. As he himself stated in the preface to the edition, this requiem was written «for my soul’s peace». It is scored for an ensemble of five voices backed up by a quartet of viols. In a more archaic style, its intense emotion is doubtless influenced by the music of his Roman master, Giacomo Carissimi.

Reviews

November 2016

Vox Luminis’s consummate mastery of polyphonic textures, plangent sonorities and contoured phrasing is profoundly beautiful; the five soloists and five additional ‘ripieno’ singers declaim text with clarity and decorum....Never anything less than sublime.

12th August 2016

Later Requiems wallow in grief at times or stray into the histrionic for the lurid scenes of apocalyptic judgement in the Dies Irae, but Kerll does neither...Fux may have been among Kerll’s pupils, and his Requiem definitely shares something of Kerll’s pensive mood, but there are certainly differences in style; Fux makes far greater use of poignant dissonances throughout his Requiem.

21st August 2016

The excellent vocal ensemble Vox Luminis goes from strength to strength with its deftly inflected, pure, rather un-English singing.

Early Music Today

No questioning the evidence here of the outstanding quality of Vox Luminis – nor of the talents of individual singers from the ensemble who tackle the plentiful solo passages which both works throw up...the sound is immaculate, capturing the sense of space the venues offer but with detail never obscured.

Fux & Kerll: Requiems

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Recording of the Week, Lionel Meunier and Vox Luminis perform Requiems by Fux and Kerll