The latest recording from the Orchestra of the Renaissance is a reconstruction of a Mass for the Assumption as it might have been heard in Toledo Cathedral in about 1580. It follows very much the pattern established by the group’s previous discs‚ with a mixture of musical items that can be pegged‚ however loosely‚ to a particular occasion or type of occasion. Here the research into the rich musical repertory and the musico­liturgical practice of Toledo Cathedral by guest conductor Michael Noone makes for a particularly compelling example of the reconstruction genre. The ways in which instruments and voices are used is well thought out‚ and the music‚ including those pieces by the less well­known Toledan maestros Ribera and Torrentes‚ is of the highest quality. Similar care has been taken over the sources for the plainchant (though none survives from Toledo for this period) which‚ as on earlier recordings by the Orchestra of the Renaissance‚ is performed with just the right inflections and sense of pace by the bass Josep Cabré. The centrepiece is Morales’ Mass Benedicta est regina caelorum‚ a work appropriate for the main Marian feast of the year. Morales was chapel master at Toledo Cathedral for a brief period following his return to Spain from Rome in 1545; apparently illness and the burden of administrative duties forced him to quit the position about two years later. Some time after his death in 1553‚ eight of his Masses were copied into one of the impressive series of choirbooks compiled for the cathedral choir‚ and from which all the repertory on this CD is taken. It is clear that Morales’ music continued to be performed in Spanish cathedrals throughout the 16th century and beyond‚ and this superb Mass makes it easy to see why. It is performed well by singers and instrumentalists alike‚ the harp and dulcian (the instruments most commonly found in ecclesiastical institutions in Spain at this time) adding a distinctive shimmer and depth to the overall soundpool of voices‚ shawms and sackbuts‚ though I suspect that the harp must have been miked up in relation to the winds. Overall‚ the performances are restrained with a good sense of natural flow‚ if perhaps occasionally lacking in intensity. As so often happens‚ the longer Mass movements come over a little breathless‚ but elsewhere there is a nice feeling of spaciousness that conveys something of the ceremonial of an occasion such as this. The wind band plays the elevation motet (Guerrero’s Dulcissima Maria) in a strikingly tender manner‚ while the shawms add a decidedly jaunty flavour to the Hosanna. An impressive and very attractive CD that grows with repeated listening into one of the most convincing ‘occasional’ recordings I have heard.