A Christmas programme with a difference: Rory McCleery and his acclaimed consort echo the shepherds’ noels through a motet by Jean Mouton which, astonishingly, remained in the repertoire of the Sistine Chapel for over 100 years after its composition around 1515. So famous already by the middle of the century, when Cristóbal de Morales was engaged as a singer in the papal chapel, that Mouton’s motet would form the basis for a mass by Morales; and, later still, a new motet to the same text by Annibale Stabile. A world premiere recording of the latter work crowns this unique programme, drawn from new performing editions by McCleery himself.

Under the direction of Philip Cave, Magnificat embarks on a three-volume journey exploring the ingenuity of Orlandus Lassus. In this rich collection of Magnificats based on polyphonic models, Lassus – ‘The Alchemist’ – demonstrates an unsurpassed ability to reimagine existing material in the creation of his own works. This first volume of the series presents Lassus’s Magnificats based on madrigals, featuring models by Philippe Verdelot, Cipriano de Rore, and Alessandro Striggio among others. The second album will comprise Lassus’s canticles based on motets, and the third will conclude with those inspired by chansons. In celebrating Lassus as ‘The Alchemist’, Magnificat reveals the creative process and skill he employed in re-working the original music and illuminates a significant repertory that is underrepresented in contemporary liturgical or concert settings.

2011 DGG released a spectacular 10-CD anthology on Archiv Produktion with Ensemble Plus Ultra (EPU), the finest British early music singers (Early Music Today), commemorating the 400th anniversary of Tomas de Victoria s death. This box won a Gramophone award.

Morales was the first Spanish composer to achieve true international fame, and was described by contemporaries as ‘the light of Spain in music’. Although he is relatively well-represented in recordings, a few pieces have attracted the attention of performers at the expense of the majority of his output. This recording aims to begin filling that gap by presenting works which are so far underexposed, yet which are of extremely high quality.

The works of Tomás Luis de Victoria are today an international paradigm of the Spanish Renaissance heritage. This master, born in Avila, rises like a standard-bearer from the huge spectrum of Spanish composers who carried the art of polyphony to its highest musical and liturgical significance.

Morales's five-part setting of the Requiem is one of the masterpieces of the 16th century and was actually published twice during his lifetime. The 'Missa pro defunctis' follows the customary pattern of the time. Each section begins with a unison Gregorian intonation, which then continues as a cantus firmus in the upper part as the other voices spin a polyphonic texture underneath. The work avoids obvious madrigalisms, but maintains an austere, meditative texture, which is both spiritual and moving.

Cristóbal de Morales was the finest Spanish composer of the early 16th century (2000 marked the 500th anniversary of his birth ca. 1500, possibly in Seville). He was also one of the most important contributors to a repertoire of musical settings used in the liturgy for the dead. His five-voice Requiem (or Missa pro Defunctis, as it was originally called) was published in Rome in 1544 while he was a member of the Papal choir, and from there it became widely known across Europe. This overwhelming and impressive music was probably sung in 1599 in Mexico as part of the memorial ceremonies for Emperor Charles V (almost an exact contemporary of Morales), and then in 1598, in the context of a full Requiem Mass celebrated in the Cathedral of Toledo upon the death of Philip II.

Jérôme Lejeune continues his History of Music series with this boxed set devoted to the Renaissance. The next volume in the series after Flemish Polyphony (RIC 102), this set explores the music of the 16th century from Josquin Desprez to Roland de Lassus. After all of the various turnings that music took during the Middle Ages, the music of the Renaissance seems to be a first step towards a common European musical style. Josquin Desprez’s example was followed by every composer in every part of Europe and in every musical genre, including the Mass setting, the motet and all of the various new types of solo song. Instrumental music was also to develop considerably from the beginning of the 16th century onwards.