Lassus: St. Matthew Passion, Visitatio, Exsultet

Our Price: $12.99
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Category: Music CD
See more CD details
Listen soundtracks from this album

Buy this Music CD at online store in your country
Canadian Music Store

CD Details

Composer: Lassus
Conductor: Paul Hillier
Performer: tenor Paul Elliott
Orchestra: Theatre of Voices
Edition: Music CD
Running Time: 77 unknown-units
Published: 1994
Music Label: Harmonia Mundi

Music reviews of Lassus: St. Matthew Passion, Visitatio, Exsultet

Music Review: It may seem dry, but dip your toe in the pool
Rating: 5 Stars

The oratorio form began as a purely liturgical setting of one of the passions written by John, Luke, Mark, and Matthew. Perhaps the most rounded passion was from the pen of Matthew, which included in-person scripting of the private events in Gethsemane, Pilate's judgment chamber, the holding cells of Jerusalem, and the public execution of a man who was proclaimed to be king and son of god.

This setting of the passion according to Matthew is one of the earliest available on CD, with its music having been published in 1594. Strictly holding to the requirements of the contemporary catholic liturgy, all music is vocal. The expression goes quite far beyond Gregorian chant, but remains conservative and closely related to the text. The purely-voiced performance by the Hillier-led Theatre of Voices is in Latin, and the full liner notes provide a translation.

Recommended especially for music lovers who are very familiar with the passions of J.S.Bach, to use as comparison to the relatively wild orchestrations and emotional pyrotechnics of the Bach works that came 133 years later.

Description of Lassus: St. Matthew Passion, Visitatio, Exsultet

Lassus made one setting of each of the Passion narratives, but St. Matthew, the first that Lassus composed, was the only one of the four to be printed in his lifetime; the others survive only in manscript. Recorded at the University of California, Davis. . Includes a 34 page booklet.