VICTORIA: Lamentations of Jeremiah; JUAN GUTIERREZ DE PADILLA: Lamentations for Maundy Thursday – Tallis Scholars/ Peter Phillips, director – Gimell 043, 64:08 [Distr. by Harmonia mundi] *****:
The Lamentations of Jeremiah were given in the Western church at the first nocturn of Matins for Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday. These were very austere days in the Roman rite, with the altar stripped and the church cloaked in great darkness. How profoundly moving must have been a setting like this of Victoria’s, whose constant and inexorable chordal structures build and build until the Holy Saturday setting culminates in a massive homophonic texture that simply overwhelms us with the sound.
These are not contrapuntal masterpieces, but they do make good use of every written note, the composer careful to proclaim Jeremiah’s laments with the utmost precision and highest expectations for feeling and piety. Though these are art pieces of the highest order, Victoria, who would become a priest, obviously had the congregational element of spirituality foremost in his mind. The notes draw you to the words, exactly as a great piece of church music should, while pressing the inner ear with melodies that are as full of compunction as they are of purely melodic persuasiveness. Being Spanish didn’t hurt—the normally hot blood is tempered here only to fully relive the passion of Christ during this special time.
It is good to have new recordings by Peter Phillips and company. I hardly have to recommend them for their quality—there is no group recording today with such a reliably consistent catalog both in terms of performance excellence and recorded sound. This is a no-brainer and is enthusiastically urged on everyone.
— Steven Ritter
