Music for All Saints and All Souls: London

From the haunting beauty of Lôbo’s Missa pro defunctis, through the radiant polyphony of Victoria and Byrd, to the profound emotional weight of Harris, Stanford and Parry, this is music that speaks directly to the heart.

Duarte Lôbo was the most widely known of Portuguese composers, his music appearing not only all over Portugal, but in Spain, the Spanish Netherlands, and South America. His Requiem unfolds in rich, sonorous polyphony, its sombre intensity balanced by the luminous purity of Victoria’s O quam gloriosum and Versa est in luctum .Byrd’s music brings an almost weightless clarity, while Harris, Stanford and Parry reveal the uniquely English tradition of choral music at its most expressive and moving. There is darkness here, but also extraordinary beauty: music for mourning, remembrance and hope.