Se la face ay pale remains Dufay’s most approachable Mass – very much a tune with accompaniment, one that is assembled as though elegance of line was Dufay’s main criterion of musical excellence. And Andrew Kirkman chooses to treat it as such: at least, he essentially persuades the singers on the contratenor line to keep well down so that borrowed melody in the tenor can come through while allowing the top line to stand out as it must. Another solution would have been to use the distribution that we know was preferred at the time: six on the top line, then two, three and three on the lower lines; but what the Binchois Consort do here sounds both transparent and natural. The balance is superb; and all lines are presented in a free and supple manner that projects the music very well. This is easy, effortless musicianship.

Meanwhile Kirkman intersperses the five Ordinary movements with movements for the Proper for St Maurice. The case for crediting these and dozens of other Proper movements to Dufay is very complex and by no means watertight. But they need to be heard, and they are given here very persuasively. Much of the music is in three or two voices only, so sounding different from the Missa Se la face ay pale and contrasting with it neatly. Only the glowing Offertory is in four voices. Metrical complexities in the Alleluia and in the Offertory add neat spice to the music. Special credit here should be given to the soloists (a pity they are not named) who sing the long and exposed duos: these have lines and phrases that seem to go on for ever, so they are astonishingly hard to sing, and these musicians do them marvellously.

To fill out the disc they perform three more Dufay pieces that can be associated with the court of Savoy: the song “Se la face ay pale” is heard in the rarer four-voice version that may not have anything to do with Dufay but is delightful and eminently worth hearing, especially in a spirited performance like this; the famous Lament for Constantinople, a touch less transparent than one might wish; and the motet Magnanime gentis, sounding as though it was done in a hurry at the end of an exhausting session.

Not long ago, the Missa Se la face ay pale was recorded by Diabolus in Musica under Antoine Guerber (Alpha, 9/05), this time with a different set of Propers, those for the Trinity. These are also excellent performances, rather less closely miked, so that you can revel in the full glorious acoustics of the Collégiale de Champeaux. On the Kirkman recording it is hard to hear the acoustics of All Souls College chapel; but you get a lot more of the detail – in fact so much that it must have been a frightening experience for the singers.