Two trends in presenting Renaissance sacred music on disc have become established. The first – the combination of voices and wind instruments – is now almost de rigueur, and is certainly well represented here by the bringing together of Capilla Peñaflorida and the Ministriles de Marsias. The second – the presentation of a setting of the Ordinary of the Mass with the different sections interspersed with motets, organ pieces and other items (here including a devotional song) – has evolved from the concept of reconstructing a particular liturgical event into the more generalised evocation of the kind of music (or musics) that might have been heard in a particular ecclesiastical establishment.

This recording of Anchieta’s Sine nominee Mass (its first recording) is representative of both these trends, and in the most positive ways. The mix of genres, textures and sonorities (chant, voices and instruments in polyphony and monophony, purely instrumental items with the glorious, uplifting sounds of sackbuts and shawms, and organ solos) lends variety and contrast, yet there is the sense of a coherent whole, with the Mass setting forming the core in this exploration of music from early 16th-century Spain.

Most of the music selected would have been heard in the context of Marian feasts or devotional celebrations in the Castilian royal chapel in the time of Isabel, the 500th anniversary of whose death is marked this year. Anchieta served that institution, in one way and another, for the best part of 40 years, more or less his entire working life. Although his Mass does not have a consistent cantus firmus to give it a name, it quite clearly refers at several points to the famous tune of the ‘Armed man’, thus reflected in the rousing rendition of L’homme armé as the first track.

Spanish Mass settings of this period tend to be more concise, more homophonic and consequently more short-breathed than those of the north European school. Paradoxically, this makes them both less and more advanced: less masterly in terms of contrapuntal skill, but more forward-looking as regards clarity and effectiveness of word-setting. Josep Cabré, who directs the very impressive ensembles of voices and instruments, takes Anchieta’s music at quite a lick which, though at first disconcerting, has the advantage of placing the short-breathed phrases in a larger context, as punctuation of the text as a whole. More sustained or dramatic moments in the setting (notably at the invocation of the name of Christ) stand out remarkably effectively and this feels just right.

The other items, notably the noble instrumental rendition of Peñalosa’s motet Sancta mater istud agas, and the serene and truly contemplative interpretation of Anchieta’s Salve regina, show that Cabré and his musicians are not always in a rush, and that the decisions behind the adoption of certain tempi have been well thought through. Indeed, underlying every aspect of this recording are an exemplary thoughtfulness and originality of approach, providing much food for thought. The recorded sound is excellent. Hats off, once again, to Naxos for exploring such little known repertory on a budget label.