Carbonelli: Sonate da Camera Nos. 1-6 – Bojan ?i?i?

   in Early Music Today (Mar, 2014)
Victoria’s set of Tenebraewas published in 1585 in a collection that included the Lamentations of Jeremiah. It consists of six groups of three responsories, two for each of the three days leading up to Easter. Sections for four-part choir – the responds – frame the versicle, where Victoria not only reduces the texture but varies the scoring. What is not varied is the tonality: it would be a mistake to play the disc in one go. Nigel Short avoids monotony through tempo changes and dynamic contrast: some sections are splendidly vigorous; others – the end of ‘Seniores populi’, for instance – are magically rapt. ‘Tenebrae factae sunt’ is appropriately transposed …