Reviewed by Steven Whitehead

This is a most welcome re-issue at a most reasonable price and any listeners with an interest in Renaissance polyphony who missed out first time round should wait no longer. Indeed this was Gramophone magazine's Editor's Choice in 2008 and I see no reason to argue. Paul Van Nevel and the Huelgas-Ensemble have taken examples from the three leading styles of the Renaissance: Franco-Flemish Polyphony, the Roman School and English late Gothic. We open with Roland De Lassus (1532-1594) with his parody of Gombert's chanson "Missa Tous les Regretz", and close by moving south to Rome for Giovanni Pierluigi Da Palestrina (c 1525-1594) and his deceptively simple "Missa Ut re mi fa sol la" which might remind us of "Do Re Mi". In between we detour to England to meet Thomas Ashewell (c 1478-ap 1513) and his "Missa 'Ave Maria'". I hope it is not a misguided sense of national pride that leads me to place Ashewell's contribution above the other two. Certainly it was new to me and I found his use of plainchant to underpin what almost sounds like improvisation in his ornamentation to be most enjoyable. The Huelgas-Ensemble sing beautifully and at the price this is well worth investigating.

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a later date.

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