Of Lassus’s larger-scale cycles, the Prophetiae sybillarum is among the trickier ones to bring off. It sits in a limbo between sacred and secular that can be so perplexing to modern-day sensibilities. The Latin texts are concerned with the sacred, but only indirectly, and Lassus’s famous use of chromaticism (nowhere more so than in the opening bars, constantly trotted out in historical surveys) is probably meant to suggest their semi-mythical provenance. Although the Prophetiae now boasts a sizeable discography, this hybrid status may explain why no one recording has managed it entirely convincingly.

Vocalconsort Berlin’s approach is most comparable to The Brabant Ensemble’s for Hyperion, though the deeper acoustic imparts a ‘bigger’ sound. From a choral and technical perspective they may well offer the most rounded and vocally satisfying of the available alternatives. Both here and in the motets that complete the recital, Daniel Reuss’s direction tends towards smooth lines and seamless transitions, an approach that obviously corresponds to the ensemble’s sound but does little to bring out the essential strangeness of the Prophetiae. It’s not just a matter of those chromatic turns: there are sudden leaps, shifts of register, wide gaps in the texture (especially below the top voice) and the obsessive repetition of certain words. Likewise, the frequent syllabic word-setting is highly suggestive of declamation, whereas the general dynamic never rises above mezzo-forte. Perhaps the deliberately subdued tone is meant to impart a dream-like quality, but to my mind it misses the rhetorical edge that Lassus’s bold gestures seem calculated to convey. As an introduction to a sybilline, not to say sphinx-like work, this may be the best we’ve got, but the search for a fully realised interpretation goes on. The accompanying motets are a rather piecemeal selection where several rival recordings of the Prophetiae offer something more substantial for their ‘B-sides’. At under 50 minutes, it’s also a thin serving of repertoire that’s not in copyright.