Motet & missa prudentes virgines & beata dei genitrix

Description

Two masses from the Liber primus missarum (1602) for Toledo Cathedral in the time of El Greco. Alonso Lobo was recognized by his contemporaries and later generations as one of the great masters of Spanish polyphony. A favorite pupil and assistant of Francisco Guerrero in Seville, Lobo was the only musician of his time to serve as chapel master at the cathedrals of Seville and Toledo at the same time, which were at the summit of the Spanish ecclesiastical system. His Liber primus missarum (1602) was widely distributed in Spain and in the New World. Of the six masses included in the original printed edition, La Grande Chapelle chose “Prudentes virgines” and “Beata Dei genitrix,” neither of which is available in a modern edition. Using as a starting point Guerrero’s motets of the same name, Lobo combines, with unmatched mastery, learned imitative techniques such as enigmatic canons with daring harmonic and expressive flourishes that have led to comparisons with the work of El Greco, his exact contemporary in Toledo.