Responsories For Holy Week - CD (5060113444042)

Around 1580 Lassus composed a four-voice setting of the eighteen Responsories for the second and third Nocturnes of Holy Week, probably intended for the services in the private chapel of his employer, Wilhelm V, Duke of Bavaria. In these miniature dramas Lassus skilfully supports the text, as was then required by the Council of Trent, illustrating the human tragedy of the Easter story with exquisite music that is all the more moving for its restraint.