Bernard Fabre-Garrus has long been experimenting with different ways of performing renaissance polyphony. It seems that each of his recordings offers a new sound; and in this particular case his novelty is to use the children of the Maitrise des Pays de Loire – both boys and girls – to sing the top line of Josquin’s Mass Gaudeamus. This is one of Josquin’s most rhythmically intricate works, so there is a major challenge here; just occasionally the rhythms slip a little. But to compensate for that there is a stirring energy to their singing; and part of the elegance of Fabre-Garrus performances has always been in his fluid, linear approach to polyphony, which works splendidly here. Moreover, with just six singers on the three lower lines, he always manages to produce a beautifully clear and balanced texture.
This is a very successful and exciting performance of one of Josquin’s most stunning masterpieces, a work that has in any case been recorded far less than it merits. His astonishingly varied treatment of the Gaudeamus melody ranges from straight imitation through unusually long-held tenor notes (that have a stunning effect on the work’s harmonic rhythm), via bravura exercises in ostinato, to the heart-stoping modulations of the final Agnus Dei. This is a key work of the years around 1500; and it is wonderful to have so fine a recording of it.
The plainchants are sung with an unusual lucidity and energy. The motets include the rarely heard Recordare virgo Mater, which gives a special opportunity for the children to sing in three parts; and they end with the most eloquent and clear performance I have heard of one of Josquin’s most famous five-voice motets, Virgo salutiferi.
That is to say that this joins my small but fast-growing list of truly good Josquin recordings.'