Paul van Nevel has a liking for eccentrics, and the life of Alfonso Ferrabosco the elder certainly qualifies him as a ‘character’. He spent a good deal of his career in England acting as an agent or double agent at the court of Elizabeth I. He fled in a hurry, returning to Italy a few years before his death, leaving behind a substantial musical legacy that influenced native composers, as well as a son and namesake to follow in his footsteps. His discography focuses on his consort music, and van Nevel’s programming gives us a more rounded picture, closer to the one that his English colleagues grew to admire and imitate. That’s enough to whet one’s curiosity.

The centrepiece here is a large-scale motet- cycle setting of Psalm 103 (Bless the Lord, my Soul). Ferrabosco’s technique is indeed most polished, so much so that the work’s many harmonic twists and turns go almost unnoticed. That’s not intended as a criticism, though the individuality for which van Nevel makes such an impassioned case in his notes is not always at its most striking here.

The madrigals are perhaps more vividly imaged, and the In nomine for viols is very well managed. The Huelgas Ensemble sound almost more ‘English’ than Flemish on this recording. The warmth one associates with Flemish ensembles is a little attenuated, except in the works that are performed one-to-a-part. This, combined with the repertoire, gives the new disc a slightly ‘off-centre’ feel: perhaps renewed listening will do the trick but, trademark octave-doublings aside, the ‘eccentricity factor’ with which van Nevel has been known to delight and to irritate by turns seems also rather muted.