CCMusic.com

After several recordings on Ricercar and a first disc on Alpha, Actus Tragicus, containing early Bach cantatas, 'of staggering profundity, purity and beauty' (ffff Telerama), Lionel Meunier and his ensemble Vox Luminis devote this new project to two showpieces by Handel and Bach. Of these two composers born in 1685, the first travelled to Italy in 1707 and made a powerful impression in Rome with the creation of his Dixit Dominus, while the second produced one of his finest compositional tours de force in the Magnificat of 1723/32-35. Two works from the core repertoire of the Belgian ensemble, here fielding combined vocal and instrumental forces, which is perfectly versed in the style and expression of Baroque rhetoric. Vox Luminis is a Belgian early music ensemble created in 2004 by it's artistic director Lionel Meunier. Today, the ensemble performs over 60 concerts a year, appearing on stages in Belgium, across Europe and around the world. The size and composition of the group depends on the repertoire being performed but the core of soloists, mostly from the Royal Conservatory of the Hague, is joined by a continuo and additional (orchestral) instrument performers. It's repertoire is essentially Italian, English and German and spans from the 16th to the 18th century. Since it's inception, the ensemble is defined by it's unity and seduces as much through the personality of each timbre as it does through the colour and the uniformity of the voices. It is more than a fixed repertoire, the ensemble members wholeheartedly communicate their passion for early music and love for the audience.