Tomas Luis de Victoria: Requiem

"This music, often known simply as Victoria's Requiem, has been regarded as some of his finest and one of the last great works in what we call the Renaissance polyphonic style. Its refined and dignified austerity is shot through with passionate conviction; it glows with extraordinary fervour within a musical and spiritual atmosphere of serenity and fitness for its liturgical purpose. ... Victoria ... composed and published in 1583 ... a Missa pro defunctis for four-part choir. This early Requiem was reprinted in 1592. By then Victoria was well established in Madrid as choirmaster and chaplain to the Dowager Empress Maria. ... In 1603 the Empress died. ... [T]he solemn High Mass of the Dead ... was celebrated. ... King Philip III was there in his mourning black and silver, his cousin Princess Margaret, the royal nun, all the dignitaries of church and state, crowded into a scene which may now make us think of an El Greco painting. ... For this occasion the composer Victoria wrote his second Requiem" (CD notes by Bruno Turner).
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