Carlo Gesualdo, Prince of Venosa, murderer in 1590 of his guilty wife and her lover, later took a wife from the d’Este family, rulers of Ferrara, whose musical interests coincided with his own. He wrote a quantity of sacred and secular vocal music and a relatively small number of instrumental pieces. In style his music is unusual in its sudden changes of tonality, its harmony and its intensity of feeling, qualities that have found particular favour among some modern theorists.

The Mass by Machaut is the earliest complete setting of the Mass text that we have. It was composed for performance in a specific church (in which this recording is made) for a specific occasion and has performance connections to the composer and his family. The performance is excellent and the recording quite clear, especially the mass, using the acoustic of a large stone church.

These works both received their first performances in Leipzig - the Magnificat in 1723 and Cantata 82 in 1727. It was in 1723 that Bach had taken up thepost of Kantor at the Thomaskirche in Leipzig, having previously been Kapellmeisterto Prince Leopold in Cothen. The Magnificat was originally heard ina version in E flat major at Christmas Vespers when movements with seasonaltexts were inserted; the version included on this disc was rendered by Bach someyears later, returning to the ordinary Magnificat text in order to makethe work performable all year round. Bach's approach to the evening canticle ischaracteristically large-scale. There is no use of recitative, owing perhaps tothe poetic nature of the text: the verses have little natural hierarchy and itis appropriate that they should all be afforded extended settings.

To mark the 500th anniversary of the birth of Tallis, here are his biggest and best church compositions, performed in its customary high style by the Oxford Camerata under Jeremy Summerly (whose Fauré Requiem remains one of Naxos's all-time bestsellers). Tallis's youthful motet Salve intemerata is among the longest single-movement works of the 16th century, but it is Spem in alium, a work of Tallis's maturity, that overshadows any other English piece of the period, including those of his great contemporary, William Byrd. Scored for 40 independent voices, it is symphonic in proportion and resplendent in this surround-sound version.

Kyrie, the Missa Entre vous filles is Lassus at this freshest and most telling, and the Sanctus is particularly beautiful. The Missa Susanne un jour, however, is more ambitious, based on what Jeremy Summerly describes as ‘the most famous song of the 16th century—the l’homme arme of its day’. Moreover, as it deals with the Apocryphal Susanna who was accused of wanton behaviour by two elders after she had spurned their sexual advances, this was just the sort of parody model that had caused the Council of Trent to be upset, two decades earlier. However, it inspired Lassus to his richest polyphony, and many of his celebrants may not have been aware of the implications of the original chanson’s text.

Where in their account of Palestrina’s Missa Aeterna Christi munera Summerly’s group are restrained in their devotional manner, this celebrated Mass for Christmas has them joyful and exuberant. The choir, over 30 strong, brings out both the beauty and the drama of the writing, and equally so in the brief motet setting the Christmas works. The magnificent Stabat Mater is wisely given to a smaller group of 16 singers, two to a part, with added clarity in the complex polyphony. Well coupled with one of Lassus’s best-loved Masses, Palestrina’s close contemporary from Flanders, this CD represents the work of two supreme polyphonic masters who died in the same year.

On Naxos the soaring opening Ave Maria, gloriously sung, immediately sets the seal on the inspirational power of Ockeghem’s music. It is followed by the plainchant, Alma redemptoris Mater, and they its polyphonic setting, simple and flowing and harmonically rich. The robust ballad, L’Homme armé, follows (‘The armed man must be feared’), sounding vigorously jolly, like a carol. It must have been hugely popular in its day since so many composers used it as a basis for a Mass. While the polyphony in the Gloria and Credo moves onward inventively, the work’s dramatic and emotional peak is readily found in the extended Sanctus (by far the longest section) and resolved in the sublime melancholy of the Agnus Dei.

If Weelkes stands slightly apart from his contemporaries then it is because he was perhaps the nearest the English got to a 'dare-devil'. The traits of the boldest compositions of his 1600 madrigal collection dig surprisingly deeply into the baroque psyche without ever drawing on specific 'baroque' practices: impetuosity, restlessness, a love of bold and startling symbolism, concentrated gestures, and an ambition for large structural coherence - all characteristics which would have found a natural home fifty years later. But when the madrigal soon, and ironically for Weelkes, became an anachronism he willingly turned his attention to the church, committed as he was to the bastion of counterpoint.

Like David Hill, Jeremy Summerly moves the music of each Mass on fairly briskly until the Sanctus and Agnus Dei, when a poignant contrast. The two motets on which the Masses are based are sung as postludes, and very beautiful they are, especially the idyllic O magnum mysterium. Finally, the short Verse est in Luctum (a setting of a section of the Requim Mass) by Alonso Lôbo, a Spanish contemporary, ends the concert serenely. The recording is excellent and this is a fine bargain.

The Oxford Camerata with their beautifully blended timbre have their own way with Tallis. Lines are firm, the singing has serenity but also a firm pulse. In the Mass (and particularly in the Sanctus) the expressive strength is quite strongly communicated, while the Benedictus moves on spontaneously at the close. The motets respond particularly well to Jeremy Summerly’s degree of intensity. The opening Loquebantur variis linguis has much passionate feeling, and this (together with the Audivi vocem and, especially, the lovely Sancte Deus) shows this choir of a dozen singers at their most eloquent. The recording, made in the Chapel of Wellington College, is very fine indeed.

Born into a musical family in Wales in 1572, Thomas Tomkins became one of the most significant church musicians in England during the 17th century. In his mature years he shared his time between his duties as Choral Master at Worcester Cathedral and organist of the King's Chapel in London, and was regarded among the outstanding organists of his time. His madrigals were the most important in the English school of composition, and among his considerable output was included over 120 anthems, many of his outstanding works included in this disc of Tomkins' highlights.

Schutz’s Weinachtshistorie is a magnificent Christmas counterpart to the Passion, and one can perhaps understand that during his lifetime the composer would only permit musicians of a certain standard to perform it in its entirety. The present recording is in most respects excellent. The choir are on very good form, bright, perfectly tuned (listen to Intermedium II, “The Multitude”, for example, or the vigorous characterization of the Magi in Intermedium IV), the instrumental contributions are discreet but vigorous when necessary, and the soloists all good. Paul Agnew is, I feel, a little matter of fact at the beginning, but seems to warm up as the work progresses (always a dangerous thing to say since, for all one knows, the work may have been recorded entirely in reverse order, but that is the impression given).

The world premiere recording of John Tavener’s Lament for Jerusalem in its “Jerusalem version” performed by the Choir and Orchestra of London under the direction of Jeremy Summerly. Soprano Angharad Gruffydd Jones and counter-tenor Peter Crawford are the featured soloists.