Requiem (cd)

Gramophone Magazine
October 2026
Editor's Choice

Vox Luminis, Lionel Meunier

Lassus: Missa pro defunctis quinque vocum, LV 963
Lassus: Officium pro omnibus fidelibus defunctis, LV 624

Roland de Lassus composed more than eighty masses, of which only two are Requiems; it is not possible to link them to the funerals of any particular individuals.

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. Here, Vox Luminis 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.

"The album shows the qualities we have come to expect from Lionel Meunier and Vox Luminis: flawless intonation, beautifully transparent balance, the clearest diction and perfectly judged musical phrasing." — Gramophone Magazine, October 2026