This extraordinary work now boasts a sizeable (if uneven) discography, the Consort of Musicke’s early recording (L’Oiseau-Lyre – nla) and Philippe Herrewegghe’s magisterial reading being the front-runners. Those are predecessors to reckon with but the 10 singers of this ensemble do more than hold their own. They come nearest to Herrewegghe in approach, and though director Christopher Jackson doesn’t try to match the exquisitely refined madrigalisms of the great Belgian, he shows real understanding of the work’s drama. Peter’s denial of Christ sets off a painful self-examination, from which the disciple emerges humbled but with a renewed sense of purpose. Lassus wrings from this darkly redemptive story music of near-miraculous psychological acuity and pathos.

Jackson’s singers keep the music moving, while remaining attentive to the significance of the merest details, and the final motet has an impressive, detached serenity. They have the voices to sustain prolonged and intense scrutiny (the 21 movements take up the whole disc), the only qualification being that the first alto part might better have been given to a high tenor rather than the two female altos, who are perhaps less successful than the others at projecting their part because of its lowish range. The recorded sound is good but two audible glitches have gone uncorrected (the piece’s third beat is shortened by half, and a misreading at 0'32" of track seven vitiates a key dissonance); nevertheless, there is much to admire here.