Between mourning and hope, Alonso Lobo and Tomás Luis de Victoria give voice to one of the most powerful expressions of Spanish sacred music. A programme of profound expressive intensity, in which sorrow gradually gives way to light.

At the turn of the seventeenth century, Habsburg Spain mourned its sovereigns. From this royal grief emerged some of the most deeply moving works in the European sacred music tradition. This programme traces a spiritual and musical journey from earthly sorrow towards the light of hope.

The programme opens with Alonso Lobo’s poignant motet Versa est in luctum, composed in 1598 for the grand funeral rites of King Philip II of Spain. A work of extraordinary expressive power, it prepares the listener for Tomás Luis de Victoria’s magnum opus: his celebrated Officium Defunctorum of 1605.

Composed for the funeral of Empress Maria of Austria, Philip II’s sister, this Requiem is often regarded as Victoria’s musical testament. The programme brings together some of its finest pages, from the sombre meditation of Tædet animam meam to the radiant fervour of the Graduale and Offertorium, culminating in the haunting supplication of Libera me.

Echoing Victoria’s motet Versa est in luctum, the programme also features Lobo’s masterful Lamentations of Jeremiah. Originally intended for the Office of Tenebrae, these works unfold a contrapuntal architecture of rare dramatic intensity.