This release is the last in a series of nine Josquin mass recordings by The Tallis Scholars and their director, Peter Phillips. The series began in 1986, and Phillips has been the group's director since it was founded in 1973. The Tallis Scholars are, thus, a well-oiled machine, and they're capable of a flawless vocal blend that's hard to match even among England's superb collection of small choirs (the Scholars are ten strong). There are other ways to sing Josquin, but their hyper-clarity works well in his music, for it brings out the music's striking, Bachian complexity. This particular album, despite its ultimate position, is especially good, for in the Missa Hercules Dux Ferrarie and Missa Faysant Regretz, it's best to have no distractions from the strikingly bold underlying structure.

Esa-Pekka Salonen concluded his tenure as Music Director of the San Francisco Symphony with a performance of Mahler’s Symphony No. 2, “Resurrection,” presented as part of a special concert program. This performance reflects Salonen’s deep connection to Mahler’s music and his distinctive interpretive approach, combining precision with profound emotional depth. The release stands as a signature digital project for both Salonen the Symphony and Chorus, highlighting their efforts to expand the orchestral experience through innovative digital collaboration.

A Noel is a French Christmas carol, and the ones here are sung by Les Pages du CMBV (Centre Musique Baroque de Versailles), a children's choir. Their voices do not soar, but they are not the stars of the show. Instead, the album is part of a series called L'age d'or de l'orgue français, and the main attraction is organist Gaétan Jarry, and even more so, the 1710 organ at the Versailles chapel. It's a marvelous instrument, clear in all registers, lively, and bracing. The composer-organists here are largely unknown today, at least outside France, but hearing these works, the listener may understand why crowd control police had to show up for performance by the likes of Claude Balbastre (1724-1799). Jarry performs the Noels with the choir singing verses in alternation with the organ.

This album, directed by Jordi Savall, offers a refined interpretation of Marc-Antoine Charpentier’s Te Deum and In Nativitatem canticum, showcasing the richness of French Baroque sacred music. Featuring Le Concert des Nations and the Choir of La Capella Reial de Catalunya, the performance reflects Savall’s deep historical insight and musical sensitivity. Recorded with clarity and expressive intensity, the album highlights the grandeur and spiritual depth of Charpentier’s compositions while capturing the stylistic elegance of 17th-century court music. It stands as both a historically informed interpretation and a compelling artistic statement on the enduring emotional power of sacred repertoire.

For those who believe in Original Sin, Predestination or, for that matter, Karma, here's a two disc set of the complete "Penitential Psalms" of Orlandus Lassus fabulously performed by Henry's Eight and marvelously recorded by Hyperion. Gloomy but glorious works that hope for the best while assuming for the worst, Lassus' setting of seven fuliginously serious but spiritually salubrious Psalms of David are sure to send shivers down the spine of anyone with a pessimistic cast of mind. The acapella performances of the all-male – two countertenors, three tenors and three basses – Henry's Eight is darkly hued, strongly rhythmic, deeply soulful, very expressive and absolutely true to the late Renaissance agony of Lassus's music. While not perhaps the first place to start with for Lassus in a melancholy mood – try "The Tears of Peter" for the peak of harmonic anguish – Henry's Eight's recording Penitential Psalms belongs in every Lassus collection, especially as preserved in Hyperion's intimate and evocative sound.

This recording is simply stupendous in terms of the music it presents, the performance, and the recording quality. Brumel was born only 20 years after Josquin but there is a world of difference between their respective compositional styles. Josquin's music cements the accomplishments of his predecesors and shows the way forward. Brumel's music pushes rapidly forward along–and in some senses, away from–that path. The "Missa ecce terra motus", featured on this recording, anticipates such great mid-16th century masterpieces as Tallis's "Spem in alium". The Huelgas Ensemble is in top form here and van Nevel's direction and interpretation are superb.

Extempore II is the second collaboration between two quartets in widely varying fields: the early music specialist vocal group Orlando Consort and the jazz combo Perfect Houseplants. This project is structured as a mass in honor of St. Michael based around the medieval tune L'homme armé and various members of both groups are responsible for the pieces that make up the whole. The resulting patchwork arrangement of ideas works better in the second half of the program than it does in the first, where the variety of approaches seems a bit disorderly in terms of overall flow.

Kaspar Förster studied music under his father Kaspar (1574-1652) and then under Marco Scacchi in Warsaw. He sang bass and conducted choirs at the Polish court in Warsaw from 1638 to about 1643, then served as kapellmeister to Frederik III of Denmark in Copenhagen between 1652 and 1655. In 1655, a war broke out between Denmark and Sweden, and Förster returned to Danzig, working as cantor at the Marienkirche there. He returned to the employ of Frederik from 1661 to 1667. During this time he visited Venice several times and played a role in bringing aspects of Italian musical style to northern Europe. He also studied under Giacomo Carissimi in the 1660s. Late in his life he worked briefly in Hamburg before returning to his birthplace.

Though born a Slovene, Jacobus Gallus centered his entire work around Vienna, Prague and the diocesan city of Olomouc (Olmutz). The surpris-ing mobility of Gallus's truly Renaissance career shows him as a model of the sixteenth-century composer. Gallus was active at both abbey and court, though at times for only a brief period before moving on: Melk, Brno (Brunn), Wroclaw (Breslau), Legnica (Lieg-nitz), Gorlitz, Zwettl, and elsewhere. Mis cosmopolitan spirit is reflected, moreover, in the numerous variations of his name: Handl, Petelin, Haehn, Handelius, Coq, Kohoutek.

Jordi Savall’s recording of Robert Schumann’s “Das Paradies und die Peri” is a triumph of musical storytelling and interpretive depth. This oratorio, inspired by Thomas Moore’s “Lalla Rookh,” follows the Peri—a fallen angel—on her quest for redemption as she offers the most precious gift from every realm of existence: a drop of a warrior’s blood, a lover’s sigh, and a tear from a repentant sinner. Schumann’s lush, Romantic score weaves these episodes into a tapestry of emotional intensity, combining sublime choruses with heartfelt solo passages. Once again, Savall combines scholarly rigor with emotional authenticity.

This CD is the first in a new series of Collins Classics devoted to Renaissance religious European polyphony. The first part focuses on England with works by William Byrd and Thomas Tallis. Both composers set the lamentations of Jeremiah. William Byrd's "Four part mass" and Thomas Tallis's "Audivi vocem de caelo" can also be heard. The works are sung by The clerks of the choir of New College Oxford conducted by Edward Higginbottom.

Very little is known about the life of Giovan Battista Leonetti. He was born in Crema and it is likely that he received his musical education from Giovanni Battista Caletti-Bruni. The latter was the father of Francesco Cavalli, who was to become the central figure in music life in Venice after the death of Claudio Monteverdi. The first - and only - book of madrigals by Leonetti is dedicated to Caletti. This collection also contains two pieces by him, one of them the 'balletto pastorale' Or sì che 'l vago aprile. The booklet doesn't indicate which is the other.

The Arundel Choirbook is one of the most significant surviving collections of English polyphony from the early 16th century. As well as containing invaluable sources for masses by Robert Fayrfax and Nicholas Ludford, it also contains many works by lesser known and anonymous composers of the period. The Arundel or Lambeth Choirbook is celebrating its 500th anniversary (Arundel College in Sussex was founded in 1380 and dissolved in 1544), and it is fitting that the Iken Scholars has selected a sequence of pieces by anonymous composers (known as the Lambeth Anonymous) that are receiving their world premiere recordings.

Without doubt, this is one of the most important recordings of music by Janácek in recent years. Paul Wingfield’s restoration of the original performing version of the Glagolitic Mass is a fine piece of work and deserves to become the standard text. Those familiar with the Mass will notice changes right at the start, where the ‘Intrada’ (normally the conclusion) appears twice, at both the beginning and end. This introduces a number of fundamental alterations to rhythm and instrumentation which make for a markedly different whole: undoubtedly harder to perform, but infinitely sharper in outline.

Trésors du Moyen-Âge (Treasures of the Middle Ages) is a monumental and deeply evocative four-CD box set released by RCA Red Seal in 2004, offering a comprehensive panorama of European musical creation from the 12th through the 15th centuries. This collection intricately balances the sacred and the profane, pairing celestial liturgical masterworks with the earthier, vibrant expressions of secular courtly love and folk traditions. Listeners are guided through the hauntingly beautiful mystic visions of Hildegard von Bingen, the pioneering Notre Dame polyphony of Pérotin, and Guillaume de Machaut's structural landmarks, alongside the timeless verse of troubadours like Jaufré Rudel and Richard the Lionheart. Spanning everything from Icelandic sagas and Breton prophecies to Spanish Cantigas de Santa Maria, Sephardic Jewish ballads, and theatrical liturgical dramas like Le Jeu de Daniel, this box set serves as an invaluable, pristine audio archive of the medieval mind and spirit.