TOMÁS LUIS DE VICTORIA · Passion
Officium Hebdomadæ Sanctæ

Tomás Luis de Victoria’s OFFICIUM HEBDOMADÆ SANCTÆ is one of the most compelling examples of creative genius in a composer, a toweringly poignant and masterpiece on the Passion of Christ, a pure but infinitely subtle creation, Ad majorem Dei gloriam.

ALIA VOX
AVSA9943
CD1 : 75’44
CD2 : 68’07
CD3 : 58’89
TOMÁS LUIS DE VICTORIA
OFFICIUM HEBDOMADÆ SANCTÆ

LIVE RECORDING

CD1

DOMINICA IN RAMIS PALMARUM
1-5.  –Pueri Hebræorum. Passio secundum Mathæum. O Domine Jesu Christe
FERIA QUINTA IN CENA DOMINI
6-20. – LAMENTATIO JEREMIÆ PROPHETÆ   
Lectio Prima, Lectio Secunda, Lectio Tertia
21-29.     SEX TENEBRÆ RESPONSORIA   
30-33.     AD LAUDES. Benedictus Dominus. Miserere. Pange lingua    

CD2

FERIA SEXTA IN PASSIONE DOMINI
1-10.       LAMENTATIO JEREMIÆ PROPHETÆ  
11-20.     SEX TENEBRÆ RESPONSORIA    
21-22.     AD LAUDES. Passio secundum Joannem   
23-26.     IN ADORATIONE CRUCIS. Vere languores. Popule meus   

CD3

SABBATO SANCTO
1-14.       LAMENTATIO JEREMIÆ PROPHETÆ                                        
15-25.     SEX TENEBRÆ RESPONSORIA                                                     
26-29.     AD LAUDES. Benedictus Dominus. Miserere. Vexilla regis                
 

Andrés Montilla-Acurero – Cantor

LA CAPELLA REIAL DE CATALUNYA
Lluís Vilamajó préparation de l’ensemble vocal

Direction : JORDI SAVALL

Enregistrement des concerts donnés les 24 et 27 juillet 2018 à la Kolliegienkirche de Salzbourg
Enregistrement, Montage et Mastering SACD : Manuel Mohino (Ars Altis)

TOMAS LUIS DE VICTORIA
OFFICIUM HEBDOMADÆ SANCTÆ
Mysticism and Passion: an absolute masterpiece

More than 70 years ago, the sequences of Gregorian chant and polyphonic music such as that of Tomás Luis de Victoria made a profound impression on my musical experience at that time from 1949 to 1953, when I was a chorister under the direction of Joan Just in the boys’ choir of the Piarist school at Igualada, Catalonia. To have been submerged in the beauty of that music during my childhood unquestionably made a lasting impact and shaped certain aspects of my education as a chorister, and particularly my musical sensibility. The memory of those spellbinding chants also had a decisive influence on my choice to study the cello a few years later, just before I turned 15, when I was spellbound one evening at a rehearsal of Mozart’s Requiem.  It was after that evening of extraordinary intensity, and thanks to Joan Just, who conducted the choir of the Schola Cantorum in Igualada, that I fully realized the power of music and decided to become a musician.

There followed years of study at the Barcelona Conservatoire (diploma in violoncello in 1964), then my discovery of the viola da gamba (1965), specialist studies and periods of research in the ancient libraries of Europe and the New World, my years of study in Basel (1968-70) and teaching at the SCHOLA CANTORUM BASILIENSIS (1973-93), followed by the founding of various ensembles: HESPÈRION XX (1974), LA CAPELLA REIAL (1987) and LE CONCERT DES NATIONS (1989), with which we made numerous concert tours and recordings, and finally the creation of the record label ALIA VOX (1998). All of this led to our wide-ranging familiarity with repertories in the world of early music, and, as is the case of the Victoria recording that we present here, a moving return to my deepest roots.

+ information in the CD booklet

Jordi Savall
Bellaterra, 3 March, 2021
Translated by Jacqueline Minett