On the occasion of the 4th centenary of Tomás Luis de Victoria's death, Catalunya Radio (in its space 'El Gran Segle') offers us a monographic program about the Abulense.
We can listen here volume 7 belonging to Victoria collection by Ensemble Plus Ultra.It includes a remake of the Easter liturgy in Austrias Madrid,ca 1600, which includes choral pieces for 8 and 12 voices and other previous pieces including “plain singing”. Juan Carlos Asensio with the group Schola Antiqua , the organist Andrés Cea and the group His Majesty's Sagbutts and Cornetts also play.
We talk to Ana Maria Sabe Andreu, writer of the book Tomás Luis de Victoria, Pasión por la música, and maker of the blog ivcentenariotomasluisdevictoria.blogspot.com, where we can find every single piece of new sor event related to the celebration of the 400th anniversary of the composer from Avila’s death. We can also listen to the Mass Ave Regina published inn Madrid in 1600, several motets only kept in manuscripts and attributed to our master and the Mass Salve in a new version by the group The Sixteen.
Programme devoted to the Book of Masses, magníficats, motets, psalms and others published by the Royal Printing in Madrid in 1600 with TLV’s works, including for the very first time a part of the music to be played with the organ. We can listen to Magnificat sexti toni for 12 voices, the mass Alma redemptoris mater, the piece Veni Sancte spiritus, the mass Pro Victoria (based on the.chanson L Guerre de Janequin, which we also remember) and the motet O Ildephonse.
Two masses are the most important components of this programme. From the Book of Masses in 1592, we get the Mass Vide speciosam, based on the motet with the same name for 6 voices published by Victoria on several occasions. We can listen to them performed by Westminster cathedral choir conducted by David Hill and with James O’Donnell at the organ. We move onto Madrid to start a tour through a new edition from 1600, where Victoria included The Mass Laetatus sum fro 12 voices, based on the motet with the same name.
We will listen to several compositions published by Victoria in Rome. The 2 most important pieces were the masses O magnum mysterium and Ascendens Christus in altum , published in 1592 and written after the motets, with the same name from 1572, which we will also listen. We can listen to several motets from a book published in 1585: Lauda sion, Iste sanctus pro lege, Estote fortes in bello and Gaudent in coelis animae sanctorum. As musical interludes, we will listen to organ pieces by Soto de Langa, Victoria’s mate in Saint Philip Neri church in Rome.
We finish listening to the Officium Hebdomadae Sanctae by Victoria with the part devoted to Holy Saturday in the version recorded in 2004 in San Miguel Church in Cuenca by the groups La Colombina and Schola Antiqua each one directed by Josep Cabré and Juan Carlos Asensio. We can also listen to a selection of madrigals by Luca Marenzio, Italian composer from Victoria’s time by the groups Concerto Vocale and The Consort of Musicke.
We will listen to the third part of Officium Hebdomadae Sanctae by Tomás Luis de Victoria devoted to Holy Saturday interpretated by La Colombina and Schola Antiqua. We will also complete the programme with music by Pablo Bruna and Cipriano de Rore.
In Rome, in 1585, Victoria published his Officium Hebdomadae Sanctae, which marks a turning point in his life and in his musical career and production since it means the summit of his Roman period. It is a full work with several pieces for the most important celebrations of Easter. In this programme we can listen to the section for Palm Sunday and Maundy Thursday by La Colombina and Schola Antiqua, each group directed by Josep Cabré and Juan Carlos Asensio.
The most important work of this programme was the 4 voice Mass pro defunctis which Tomás Luis de Victoria published in his 1583 mass book in Rome, a page which Victoria used to elaborate his better known Officium Defunctorum from 1605. We will also listen to other funerary pieces, such as a part of one out of the two Pro Defunctis masses by Cristóbal de Morales, a selection of Lachrimae by John Dowland, Ad mortem festinamus from the Llivre Vermell or Deploratio sur la morte de Johannes Ockeghem by Josquin des Pres.
