Vox Luminis XL
How monumental can music become before it bursts at the seams? In the 16th century, composers sought out that breaking point with an almost reckless ambition. Thomas Tallis goes to the extreme in Spem in alium, a polyphonic cathedral of sound for forty voices, that slowly rises and then crumbles again. Like the Steven Spielberg of Renaissance polyphony, he puts the vocal interplay under high tension: to hear all forty parts, we must wait exactly forty bars.
Even in compactly orchestrated polyphony – such as that of Sheppard, Morley, and Striggio – there often lurks an intensity with crushing impact. Vox Luminis, pure world class, born at the Hague Conservatory, presents this repertoire with breathtaking precision, warmhearted emotion, and a sound that is both transparent and lush. Less is more? Not in this case!
With an introduction by Annelies Andries (19:15 hrs, in Dutch) in the Fentener van Vlissingen Foyer (limited capacity).
Also live on www.emtv.online.
Programme
-
Thomas Morley
Funeral Sentences
1557/58-1602 -
Thomas Tallis
Spem in Alium
c1505-1585 -
Alessandro Striggio
Ecce Beatam Lucem
c1536/37-1592 -
John Sheppard
Media vita in morte sumus
Programme subject to changec1515-1558
Musicians
- Vox Luminis XL
- Lionel Meunier musical direction, bass
