SACRED CHORAL MUSIC Josquin, Arcadelt, Palestrina (1929-1933) - PACO016

A wide-ranging collection of sacred music

Four top Cathedral Choirs from around Europe in superb 78rpm transfers

This quite remarkable collection arrived at Pristine Audio ready-assembled, albeit on the original 78s and needing transfer and remastering. It brings together four excellent choirs and a collection of superb early polyphonic sacred music to produce a whole that is entirely satisfying.

All of these recordings were made around the same time; the earliest, from 1929, perhaps shows its age the most. Elsewhere the Sistine Chapel Choir, which almost five hundred of year previously had featured Josquin de Prés among their number, are in good voice. However it is the Dijon Cathedral Choir which shines brightest in this collection, both in terms of performance and recording quality, and it is they who provide the only long-form recording here with the 13'17" Missa Assumpta Est Maria by Palestrina - surely a highlight.

Elsewhere it's fascinating to hear Josquin effectively recycling his melodic material - tracks two and three are both based on the same tune - Ave Coelorum Domina is meditative and slow, whereas Ave Vera Virginitas presents a far more lively interpretation.

The third composer here, Arcadelt, has the Ave Maria assigned to his authorship, though this is now thought doubtful; we have listed him here as the composer as shown on the original 78. It is also now considered unlikely that Josquin was the original author of the Ave Verum Corpus. But quibbling over authorship is academic - what we have here is a superb collection of choral music from the 15th and 16th centuries, some of it otherwise unavailable in recorded form in the current catalogue.

Andrew Rose