Victoria: Tenebrae Responsoria

"A well-packed disc, for those who love a good long play. But, more to the point, the singing and recording are outstanding. And what music is here enshrined! Victoria's Spanish brooding found full satisfaction in the responses for Tenebrae - that church observance which honours the dark before the dawn of the Resurrection. His Tenebrae Responsories is perhaps his supreme masterpiece. Eighteen pieces of inspired and ever-inventive polyphony record this great Catholic act of meditation. They appeared in Rome in 1585 as part of an extensive set of compositions - Hymns, Motets and Choruses, etc. for use in Holy Week under the official title of Hebdomadae Sanctae.

"Readers may be a little weary of praises for The Tallis Scholars. There is no other course. This is surely one of the supreme choirs of the world. Peter Phillips, whose notes are revelatory reading, has reached the heart of this sublime music."

Geoffrey Crankshaw (Hi-Fi Choice, June 1991)