Victoria’s six-voice Missa pro defunctis (or Requiem) is one of the greatest choral compositions from any period, creating a mood – contemplative but never despairing – which never lets the listener go.

It is difficult to put other music alongside it, but for this programme I decided to introduce it by going big, and largely Flemish. The Gombert and Crecquillon items are scored for eight real voices, not hidden in a double-choir format, but always in play. Clemens’ iconic Ego flos campi is very similar in style, though ‘only’ for seven voices.

Nico Muhly’s A Glorious Creature, which was written for us and premiered at our 50th birthday celebration in November 2023, is not so dissimilar in style either, using all our ten voices throughout, and centered on the attributes of the sun. The unusual writing in the text is by the renaissance poet, Thomas Traherne; the complicated rhythms in the music are all the inspiration of the composer.

— Peter Phillips, director