Composer Portrait: Tomas Luis de Victoria

Published: July 25, 2011, 8 a.m.

Catherine Bott presents a profile of the great Spanish composer, Tomás Luis de Victoria, who died in 1611. He dedicated his musical life to the Church, working both in his native Spain and in Italy; all his compositions are vocal, sacred and in Latin. Although he was not as prolific a composer as some of his contemporaries, Victoria is now generally regarded as one of the greatest of Renaissance composers, his music characterised by its emotional intensity. Catherine Bott celebrates the genius of his music, and plays recordings of some of Victoria's powerfully moving music, including settings of Marian antiphons and Mass settings.