Given Josquin’s stature it is barely credible that a couple of his Masses still await representation on CD. I can recall an LP of Fortuna desperata by the Boston Camerata on Titanic some 20­odd years ago‚ but this new offering from the Clerks is the first on CD. They place the Mass alongside a number of re­workings of the famous tune by Josquin himself‚ by Isaac and Senfl‚ concluding with Greiter’s bizarre Passibus ambiguis‚ which takes the first few notes of the song’s tenor through the circle of fifths‚ finishing a semitone below its starting­point. Also included are three of Josquin’s songs published in the Venetian printer Ottaviano Petrucci’s very first collection‚ issued 500 years ago this year. An ambitious and enticing programme‚ then‚ but one that finds The Clerks’ Group below their best. In the Mass‚ one gets the impression of singers still finding their way in Josquin’s idiom. In part‚ though‚ the problem is a logistical one: the search for a high tenor to replace Stephen Harrold (admittedly a hard act to follow) has yet to bear fruit‚ and throughout the Josquin selections (try the beginning of the Credo of the Mass‚ or Adieu mes amours)‚ the exposed contratenor part clearly underscores his loss. A related‚ more general point concerns the songs‚ in particular those lines long held to be instrumental in character: vocal performance of such parts is possible‚ but it requires an almost superhuman aplomb. I remember the Huelgas Ensemble pulling this off quite spectacularly in their recording of Agricola (Sony Classical‚ 9/99)‚ but here the result doesn’t quite force the same suspension of disbelief (try the first of the Fortuna desperata arrangements on track 1‚ following the three­voice original). Finally‚ the characterisation of these pieces lacks The Clerks’ usual deftness‚ suggesting again that they have yet to find the measure of the composer. That said‚ the Fortuna desperata set fares rather better‚ and Passibus ambiguis ends the disc on a delightfully eccentric note. May we hope for a recording of Obrecht’s marvellous Mass on the same tune?