Vox Luminis - Spem in alium by Thomas Tallis
Vox Luminis, the winner of the Gramophone Classical Music Award 2019, brings a program around impressive polyphonic works from the 16th century. The prime example is Spem in alium by Tallis, a masterpiece for no less than eight five-part choirs. Tallis may have felt challenged by the dramatic and sometimes large-scale works of the Italian composer Striggio, thirty years his junior, who visited London in 1567 and of whom work for 40 voices is also on the programme.
Vox Luminis - Spem in alium by Thomas Tallis
Renaissance masterpiece for 40 voices
Carver and Josquin ask for a choir of relatively modest size. Not to mention Sheppard, who settles for six votes. But what an emotional eloquence Sheppard's motet Media vita has. This broadly elaborated composition opens with the text, 'In the middle of our lives we are surrounded by death'. Otherworldly music that leaves no one unmoved.