With the Ockeghem commemoration behind us, I look forward to 2005 and the opportunity it offers to lavish the same kind of attention on Obrecht. While we wait, the appearance on CD of two of his Masses in the same month is cause enough for celebration. In the Caput Mass, Obrecht literally builds on the works of the anonymous English composer (whose Mass has recently been recorded by Gothic Voices, Hyperion, 2/97) and Ockeghem (whose setting will appear with The Clerks’ Group later this year). In such reworkings it was incumbent on the composer to find some new twist; Obrecht’s solution is to present the plainchant on a different pitch in each movement (in the Kyrie, that of the English setting, and in the Agnus, that of Ockeghem). This is Obrecht in an expansive, note-spinning mode, with his customary fullness of sonority (try the beginning of the Credo) and what a normally terse critic like Gustave Reese called “sheer loveliness”. The Caput Mass previously appeared on a Lyrichord LP with Cappella Cordina on very good form, and my recollection is that the word-underlay in that version made more sense than the one adopted here; but if Oxford Camerata do not always match the composer for invention and inspiration, they produce a clean and faithful reading none the less.
Alongside the plainsong from which the Caput melisma is drawn (thoughtfully included for reference) and the well-known six-voice Salve regina is a lesser known but very fine four-voice setting. The super-budget price should allay any hesitation, whether for the curious or the dedicated collector.'