Notes and Editorial Reviews
Victoria's last publication was his six-voice Requiem Mass for the dowager Empress Maria, in whose service he had been from at least 1587 until her death in 1603. It is a wonderfully rich work, but at the same time one of his most restrained and refined compositions, including passages from his earlier four-voice Requiem published in 1583. In his note to the Westminster Cathedral recording, Bruno Turner points out that it is a misreading to think that Victoria thought of this as his 'swan-song'; but every detail in the music declares it as the final summarizing statement of a glorious career.
...The differences are easy to hear. The Tallis Scholars use 12 singers, including five ladies; Westminster use a full cathedral choir
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with boys. The Tallis Scholars are slightly better at projecting all the details of the six-voice polyphony and have the edge on intonation as well as diction; Westminster produce a fuller, more expressive sound and give more weight to the changes in colour and movement in the music. Perhaps surprisingly, The Tallis Scholars produce a more convincingly Iberian sound, their sopranos finding it easier to project the open-throated quality that seems right for the music. At the same time, I would think that neither choir quite matches the hieratic austerity of the music. Victoria's largely homophonic sixvoice writing seems to suggest that he had in mind something massive and immensely slow reverberating in a rich acoustic ambience. Whether it is realistic to attempt such an effect in a modern recording is a moot question, but both recordings tend towards the sprightly.
Never have I been so perplexed in an attempt to establish my preference between two recordings. Often one brief passage seems better caught in one version where the very next passage is the other way round (particularly in the wonderful Libera me). Westminster usually find a slightly more passionate mood; but they tend to be somewhat less even in quality. (Why, for example, do the men have such soft consonants against the bright ones of their boys? I originally thought this was something to do with historical pronunciation, but there is no consistency here: both choirs tend towards 'standard Roman' pronunciation.) Readers may have their own preferences; but it is difficult to think that anybody would regret buying one as against the other.
-- Gramophone [9/1987, comparing this performance of the Victoria Requiem with
the Westminster Cathedral Choir recording]
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Works on This Recording
1.
Officium defunctorum: Misa de Requiem a 6 by Tomás Luis de Victoria
Conductor:
Peter Phillips
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Tallis Scholars
Period: Renaissance
Written: by 1605; Spain
Date of Recording: 1987
Venue: St John's Church, Hackney, London, UK
Length: 35 Minutes 31 Secs.
Notes: This selection is sung in Greek and Latin.
2.
Missa "Pro defunctis": Versa est in luctum by Tomás Luis de Victoria
Conductor:
Peter Phillips
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Tallis Scholars
Period: Renaissance
Written: by 1583; Italy
Venue: St John's Church, Hackney, London, UK
Length: 3 Minutes 49 Secs.
Language: Latin
3.
Missa pro defunctis by Duarte Lôbo
Conductor:
Peter Phillips
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Tallis Scholars
Written: pub 1621
Date of Recording: 1992
Venue: St. Peter & Paul Church, Salle, Norfolk
Length: 40 Minutes 13 Secs.
Notes: This selection is sung in Greek and Latin.
4.
Missa pro defunctis by Cardoso, Manuel, Frei
Conductor:
Peter Phillips
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Tallis Scholars
Period: Renaissance
Written: by 1625; Portugal
Date of Recording: 1990
Venue: St. Peter & Paul Church, Salle, Norfolk
Length: 47 Minutes 29 Secs.
Notes: This selection is sung in Greek and Latin.
5.
Non mortui by Cardoso, Manuel, Frei
Conductor:
Peter Phillips
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Tallis Scholars
Period: Renaissance
Written: by 1625; Portugal
Venue: St. Peter & Paul Church, Salle, Norfolk
Length: 3 Minutes 59 Secs.
Language: Latin
6.
Sitivit anima mea by Cardoso, Manuel, Frei
Conductor:
Peter Phillips
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Tallis Scholars
Period: Renaissance
Written: by 1625; Portugal
Venue: St. Peter & Paul Church, Salle, Norfolk
Length: 3 Minutes 48 Secs.
Language: Latin
7.
Mulier quae erat by Cardoso, Manuel, Frei
Conductor:
Peter Phillips
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Tallis Scholars
Period: Renaissance
Written: by 1648; Portugal
Venue: St. Peter & Paul Church, Salle, Norfolk
Length: 3 Minutes 24 Secs.
Language: Latin
8.
Nos autem gloriari by Cardoso, Manuel, Frei
Conductor:
Peter Phillips
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Tallis Scholars
Period: Renaissance
Written: by 1648; Portugal
Venue: St. Peter & Paul Church, Salle, Norfolk
Length: 2 Minutes 3 Secs.
Language: Latin
9.
Versa est in luctum by Alonso Lobo
Conductor:
Peter Phillips
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Tallis Scholars
Period: Renaissance
Written: 1598; Spain
Venue: St. Peter & Paul Church, Salle, Norfolk
Length: 4 Minutes 13 Secs.
10.
Credo quod Redemptor by Alonso Lobo
Conductor:
Peter Phillips
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Tallis Scholars
Period: Renaissance
Written: Spain
Date of Recording: 1997
Venue: St. Peter & Paul Church, Salle, Norfolk
Length: 3 Minutes 15 Secs.
Language: Latin
11.
Vivo ego, dicit Dominus by Alonso Lobo
Conductor:
Peter Phillips
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Tallis Scholars
Period: Renaissance
Written: Spain
Date of Recording: 1997
Venue: St. Peter & Paul Church, Salle, Norfolk
Length: 2 Minutes 53 Secs.
Language: Latin
12.
Ave Maria by Alonso Lobo
Conductor:
Peter Phillips
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Tallis Scholars
Period: Renaissance
Written: by 1602; Spain
Date of Recording: 1997
Venue: St. Peter & Paul Church, Salle, Norfolk
Length: 4 Minutes 29 Secs.
Language: Latin
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