Roland de Lassus: Requiem
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ROLAND DE LASSUS
Roland de Lassus: Requiem
Vox Luminis, Lionel Meunier
[ Ricercar / CD ]
Release Date: Friday 4 September 2026
This item is only available to us via Special Order. We should be able to get it to you in 3 - 6 weeks from when you order it.
Roland de Lassus composed more than eighty masses, of which only two are Requiems; it is not possible to link them to the funerals of any particular individuals.
The four-part Missa pro defunctis was published in Paris in 1577. The library of an abbey in Augsburg, however, contains a transposed manuscript copy intended for an ensemble of male voices (tenors, baritones and basses); what is more, this manuscript copy includes a Dies Irae that does not appear in the Paris edition. The five-part Requiem was published in 1589, five years before Lassus's death. Here, Vox Luminis presents both compositions, highlighting the contrasting colours of the two vocal ensembles: the gravity of the four-part Requiem against the light of the five-part setting.
"This may be the first album to contain both Requiem settings of Lassus (there is in fact a third, surviving only in keyboard tablature and with only four movements). And they make a remarkably fine pairing, both in the flowing and full-voiced style that is so characteristic of Lassus. The main difference is that for the four-voice Requiem the musicians adopt the 'low clef' version known from manuscripts in Ulm and Kremsmünster. The other sources have the music a fourth or a fifth higher. The reason for the discrepancy, in this and other works of those years, is a matter of dispute. Some would argue, as I have done, that the higher pitch is more appropriate. But Vox Luminis opt for the Stygian lower pitch going down to C two octaves below middle C. And it must be said that the singers on the bass line execute it with remarkable clarity." Gramophone Editor's Choice Oct 26
Tracks:
Missa pro defunctis quinque vocum, LV 963: Introitus: Requiem aeternam
Missa pro defunctis quinque vocum, LV 963: Kyrie eleison
Missa pro defunctis quinque vocum, LV 963: Tractus: Absolve Domine
Missa pro defunctis quinque vocum, LV 963: Offertorium: Domine Jesu Christe
Missa pro defunctis quinque vocum, LV 963: Sanctus
Missa pro defunctis quinque vocum, LV 963: Agnus Dei
Missa pro defunctis quinque vocum, LV 963: Communio: Lux aeterna luceat eis Domine
Officium pro omnibus fidelibus defunctis [quatuor vocum], LV 624: Introitus: Requiem aeternam
Officium pro omnibus fidelibus defunctis [quatuor vocum], LV 624: Kyrie eleison
Officium pro omnibus fidelibus defunctis [quatuor vocum], LV 624: Graduale: Si ambulem in medio umbrae
Officium pro omnibus fidelibus defunctis [quatuor vocum], LV 624: Sequenz: Dies irae, dies illa
Officium pro omnibus fidelibus defunctis [quatuor vocum], LV 624: Offertorium: Domine Jesu Christe
Officium pro omnibus fidelibus defunctis [quatuor vocum], LV 624: Sanctus
Officium pro omnibus fidelibus defunctis [quatuor vocum], LV 624: Agnus Dei
Officium pro omnibus fidelibus defunctis [quatuor vocum], LV 624: Communio: Lux aeterna luceat eis Domine
