There has been some fabulous singing this week. Frpm Collegium Vocale Gent & Philippe Herreweghe to The Sixteen inter alia. The Sixteen often use a very discreet organ continuo in this repertopire. You can barely hear it! I've no idea whether that would have been done at the time. On matters of HIPP, Draco mentioned in a post on The Choir that no boys' choirs were represented. This seems a shame, as from George Malcolm's famous Westminster Cathedral LP of the Tenebrae Responsories onwards, much has been recorded using varying degrees of the 'continental' sound. (I've no idea if this week's programmes are a repeat...I've no way of checking.) However, not only could one immerse oneself in this glorious music, but details of Victoria's life and his attachment to the Dowager Empress Maria and her court were well related.
More, if needed:
Tomás Luis de Victoria has become the most famed Spanish composer of the Renaissance, and ranks alongside Palestrina and Lassus as one of the greatest composers of the 16th century. He was a singer, organist, scholar, teacher, and a priest, but it was in composition that he made his most significant impact. His motets, Offices for the Dead and music for Holy Week are admired for their great beauty and intensity and his musical talent thrust him into the orbit of Spain’s royal family and the most senior clerics in Rome. His devotion to God sat at the heart of his creative life; and he wrote, “there is not a single thing as useful as music, which, reaching our hearts soft but deeply, provides a clear benefit not only for our soul but also for our body.”
More, if needed:
Tomás Luis de Victoria has become the most famed Spanish composer of the Renaissance, and ranks alongside Palestrina and Lassus as one of the greatest composers of the 16th century. He was a singer, organist, scholar, teacher, and a priest, but it was in composition that he made his most significant impact. His motets, Offices for the Dead and music for Holy Week are admired for their great beauty and intensity and his musical talent thrust him into the orbit of Spain’s royal family and the most senior clerics in Rome. His devotion to God sat at the heart of his creative life; and he wrote, “there is not a single thing as useful as music, which, reaching our hearts soft but deeply, provides a clear benefit not only for our soul but also for our body.”