Video of the Day: 'You have come out as if against a thief...' – Victoria's Tenebrae Responsories
Jonathan Whiting
Friday, March 1, 2024
In this exclusive video, I Fagiolini perform the intimate motet in the surrounds of Milton Abbey
Today's Video of the Day takes us back 450 years to Renaissance Rome with a thoroughly sublime performance of Tomás Luis de Victoria's 'Tamquam ad latronem' (You have come out as if against a thief...) by I Fagiolini. The recording is part of a full album of Victoria's Tenebrae Responsories that releases today
'Tamquam ad latronem' is the seventh of 18 motets that make up the Tenebrae Responsories written in 1585 for the various Catholic observances across Holy Week (Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday etc.). Each motet is a 'response' to the events of these holy days: 'Tantrum ad latronem' details Jesus's arrest and subsequent sentencing to death by crucifixion. The four parts weave creating a complex anguishing texture but at the end the parts combine with a sublime clarity, accepting fate.
'Victoria: Tenebrae Responsories' released today