This is perhaps one of the best Renaissance records Philip Ledger made with the King's College Choir. Bright, joyful singing, prominent consonants, and a vital approach to cross-rhythms all combine to bring the very best out of works that count among Palestrina's most out-going compositions.
His eight-voice Mass, Hodie Christus natus est, gathers much of its originality and power from the unequal distribution of the two choirs. The first, SSAB, revels in the overlapping of the two high voices, here sung by the boys in their most ebullient and glitterimg mood. Answering their phrases is the second choir, ATTB, led by altos with a wonderful sense for the more flowing lines that Palestrina tends to give them. It is these alternations that make the piece work and show Palestrina's inexhaustible inventiveness with an essentially simple idea. If your speakers are well separated, so much the better.
To my ear, Ledger, here as elsewhere, is inclined to overdo the contrasts of dynamics and tempo, especially in the Gloria and Credo where he seems nervous that the music cannot speak for itself. But the Sanctus grows and glows magnificently with a beautifully controlled passion, and the contrasting sections for smaller ensembles that follow are also elegantly done. The Agnus Dei—just a single acclamation which should presumably have its first and third acclamations sung to chant—is also firmly controlled without any excesses and brings the cycle to a wonderfully relaxed conclusion.
If some of the motets on the reverse side are slightly less successful, the record remains one that has its place in every collection of Renaissance polyphony. Unfortunately the sleeve includes no texts.'