As the earliest surviving complete polyphonic setting of the 'turba' passages in a Passion, this work has a significant place in musical history. It appears in an English manuscript from the middle years of the fifteenth century, but the music may in fact not be English. Certainly there is no clear evidence for the statement in the liner-note that it was composed for the Royal Chapel of St George in Windsor, though there is just a possibility that the single surviving manuscript of it was written for that institution. In that manuscript the St Luke Passion is preceded by a three-movement Mass cycle of which the Sanctus turns up in a continental source ascribed to Binchois. We do know that in 1438 Binchois was paid for having composed Passion settings ''in a new manner''; and there must remain at least a chance that this and the incomplete St Matthew Passion that precedes the Mass could be the lost Binchois works.
So it is good to be able to welcome a recording that also includes all the chanted portions—with James Griffett as a mellifluous if straightforward Evangelist and Michael George as a somewhat more expressive and solemn Christ. For the polyphonic 'turba' sections Pro Cantione Antiqua have the at first glance unbeatable combination of Paul Esswood, Ian Partridge and Stephen Roberts, though it must be said that towards the end their intonation is occasionally far less pure than we have a right to expect from such distinguished singers.
A further difficulty is that the music is composed in a relatively unvarying triple time throughout. To make it live would seem to require singing of the utmost flexibility that lays out the phrases in grand sweeps and downplays the triple units as much as possible. The somewhat sturdy singing here can become oppressive. But the acoustic of the Church of St John-at-Hackney in East London is well caught with just the right degree of echo to create the atmosphere without losing any musical details. There is no LP or CD equivalent.'