I was initially puzzled by the title to this collection of music composed for the liturgy of the Dead‚ although the subtitle – ‘Music from the St Gudula collection’ – is straightforward enough: the pieces by Alphonse D’Eve and Pietro Torri recorded here for the first time are taken from a large manuscript collection formerly belonging to the collegiate church of St Gudula (now St Michael’s Cathedral) in Brussels. I quickly realised‚ however‚ that for ‘area’ you should read ‘era’ and it all fits into place‚ although the music is only nudging towards the late­Baroque. The setting by Alphonse D’Eve (1666­1727)‚ born in Brussels and Kapellmeister at the church of Our Lady in Antwerp‚ of the motet for the dead‚ O acerbi‚ is not without its moments. The plangent opening is striking‚ as is the use of high voices at the beginning of the final chorus‚ presumably to represent the heavenly hosts referred to in the text. If the music‚ thoroughly Italianate in style and often reminiscent of Vivaldi‚ is somewhat predictable – the cadences are rather formulaic and the sequential patterns overused – it is certainly worth dusting down: it represents the kind of work that must have been heard in so many of the larger musical institutions all over Europe in the early part of the 18th century. Pietro Torri (c1650­1737)‚ a rather fine composer‚ was active in Hanover and Munich but seems to have visited the Brussels court and been responsible for the dissemination of the Italian style there. His setting of the Requiem Mass‚ composed in 1726 for the exequies of his patron Max Emanuel‚ Elector of Bavaria‚ is full of inspired moments‚ not least in the sustained writing in the sequence ‘Dies irae’. The carefully controlled but highly effective use of chromaticism and the breadth of line lend a Handelian profundity to much of the music: this hitherto forgotten work is definitely worth reviving. The performance by Il Fondamento‚ La Sfera del Canto and a line­up of local soloists under Paul Dombrecht is perfectly competent‚ and often more than that: the rich church acoustic lends a depth to the recorded sound‚ even though at times the chorus comes across as a little unwieldy as a result.