The Clerks’ Group have an established practice of presenting single-disc anthologies alongside a major multi-disc project. This time Pierre de La Rue is the beneficiary in a break from what appears to be a complete recording of Josquin’s Masses. In fact, La Rue wrote considerably more Masses than Josquin, roughly 30, but barely a quarter of these have been recorded. So any opportunity for further listening is most welcome.

I must say that, in comparison to the motets and chansons, the Masses are more difficult to come to terms with. There is no doubting La Rue’s craftsmanship – among contemporaries his ingenuity in writing canons was considered second only to Josquin’s – but his idiom is perhaps less strikingly original than that of some of his peers. Nevertheless, there is much to admire in the Mass of the Holy Cross: an undeniable sense of pacing and concentration of material reveals itself to the patient listener. The accompanying motets have already been recorded, and give a glimpse of La Rue the word-painter and rhetorician. So the works themselves are sufficient to warrant a recommendation.

The Clerks’ Group are now very experienced in singing this repertory, and Edward Wickham is always able to imbue his programmes with something intriguing. I don’t know how many more recordings of the Lamentations of Johannes De Quadris will find their way into the catalogue, but it is good to hear something representative of the polyphonic small change of the period. Though simply conceived, their stark simplicity is, in its own way, very effective, and must have contented even the most ascetic worshippers.The Clerks are never less than accomplished, but I wonder whether the soprano’s bright tone is really suited to La Rue. Given his audible proximity to Ockeghem (noted by Wickham in his very perceptive notes) and even to Gombert in the next generation, I really believe that a lower performing range, with countertenors on the top line, is especially appropriate to his brooding gravity. That is a matter of taste, of course, but on a more objective note I can’t help wishing that firmer direction had been exercised by the producer, especially in the Lamentations and the Mass. Top lines (whether the singers are male or female) are by definition the most exposed, but things slip up a little more often than is usual with The Clerks. These are slick performances, and eminently serviceable, but one does not quite get to the heart of the music, nor can one address the fundamental question: what makes La Rue distinctive?