Lassus: Requiem – Vox Luminis

The four-part Missa pro defunctis was published in Paris in 1577. The library of an abbey in Augsburg, however, contains a transposed manuscript copy intended for an ensemble of male voices (tenors, baritones and basses); what is more, this manuscript copy includes a Dies irae that does not appear in the Paris edition. The five-part requiem was published in 1589, five years before Lassus’s death. Vox Luminis here presents both compositions, highlighting the contrasting colours of the two vocal ensembles: the gravity of the four-part requiem against the light of the five-part setting.