Victoria’s six-voice Requiem was written for the obsequies of a woman whose father, uncle, husband and two sons were Holy Roman Emperors for nearly a century between them. The fullness of its sonority is offset by expressive restraint, even austerity; the two terms of the equation do not cancel each other out but are held in balance. Only in the Offertory and the concluding “Libera me” does Victoria concede to the text’s dramatic potential. On this recording, it’s the work’s monumental qualities that are emphasised. There’s a move with some younger English a cappella ensembles (thinking also of Stile Antico) towards a bigger sound than the Tallis Scholars or The Sixteen usually favour, but the sense of reverence towards the music is thereby even more palpable. The booklet-note, retreading tedious clichés about the timelessness of masterworks, only reinforces that impression. Although the new recording holds its own in distinguished company, it contributes little that’s new to the view of the work. Aficionados of this approach will find little to quibble with here (barring a bizarre stray artefact at 0’18” of track 30); otherwise, try the Gabrieli Consort on Archiv for a valuable corrective.

By contrast, Ensemble Officium’s recital of Holy Week Music, featuring Victoria’s five-voice Lamentations of 1585, is more actively shaped by voices whose will to disembodiment (shall we say) seems far less marked than that of their English counterparts. The music is conceived on a less monumental scale than the Requiem, which was published 20 years later, but its greater contrapuntal agility and lesser hieratic response to its texts make their own impact. The performing version draws on both the 1585 print and the earlier manuscript version made during Victoria’s time at the papal chapel, which includes verses not included in the print. The disc culminates, as did the ceremonies in the papal chapel, with Allegri’s Miserere, treated in a subtly new way: Allegri’s original music is first given unembellished, “as written”, and more ornamentation is gradually folded in with each verse, following extant sources. But this “historically informed” version gives you the best of both worlds (if you want to think of it that way) by finishing off with the “inauthentic” version with the high Cs, delivered very confidently in the event.