Twenty years ago Siegfried Hermelink discovered a new Mass by Lassus in a manuscript at Ljubljana. That may not have seemed a world-shaking event, since there were already 54 masses known to be by him, most of them ignored and considered to represent the least attractive part of his output. But Hermelink offered the view that this eight-voice work, based on Lassus's own motet Osculetur me, was exceptionally impressive; and he even implied that it could have been one of the master's last compositions. But even that cut relatively little ice at the time.
Now Peter Phillips has pulled the Sleeping Beauty out of its hiding place and he shows us that this is indeed a most remarkable work; exquisitely paced, unusually rich in harmonic variety despite its generally sparse treatment of the two four-voiced choirs, teeming with delicate melodic invention, simply the kind of piece that should have been heard and recorded many times previously.
His performance meets the best standards of The Tallis Scholars, with every detail well controlled and everything clearly audible but at the same time a musical freedom that brings the music to life. It may be possible to suggest that certain passages could have been taken more expressively and particularly that the single Agnus Dei could have been taken more slowly to give it its full power. (Certainly it is a mistake to repeat it.) But the sheer delight at discovering a completely ignored masterpiece is enough to put any small reservations very much in the background.
The group of motets is well chosen, several of them relatively well known. Particularly good here is the juxtaposition of two eight-voice motets, Salve regina mater very much in the style of the Mass, and Alma Redemptoris mater using much fuller textures in a luminously rich style that offers a striking contrast. And the singers cope effortlessly with the chromatic complexities of the famous early Timor et tremor. Once again, then, The Tallis Scholars and the Gimell label have produced something spectacularly worthwhile.'