Requiem

We tend to forget that before marble busts appeared on conservatory pianos, composers were human beings first. On this same scale, they wrote their most intricate musical creations even though some have been catalogued as oversized buildings where one is easily lost. Lionel Meunier and Vox Luminis participate in this humanistic focus and humanizing of musical interpretation. What tradition made severe and colossal is no longer so heavy: it appears before us in a new light.

Haydn and Mozart, friends and residents of Vienna, wrote two of the most grandiose and imposing masses in the repertory which are, as well, unequivocal accounts of human fragility. Transcending Baroque models and the limits of Catholic liturgy, there are the audience’s sentiments, anguish, and fears when faced with the unescapable. This has been true from the time of their premieres right through to our own days. The luminous, transparent, deeply expressive and meticulous approach by Meunier and his ensemble heighten the emotional impact of both scores. Monuments of humanistic proportions.