This is the third recording of choral works by Palestrina by an Italian ensemble to appear in the last few months – a sign of Italian performers’ growing prominence and confidence in their approach to their own music. That is one of the most exciting developments in recent years, and it is particularly invigorating that Palestrina, with his reputation for celestial purity, should receive such full-blooded treatment from his own countrymen: it gives him a new lease of life. Equally intriguing is the variety of approaches between these groups and their directors – Sergio Vartolo (Naxos, 9/97), Luigi Taglioni (Stradivarius, 6/97) and Marco Longhini. It signals a willingness to speculate, and a healthy debate as to the types of sound that might be appropriate to this music. By the standards of the Italian ensembles I have heard, the all-male, all-vocal Delitiae Musicae approximate most closely to what one might describe as the ‘English’ sound. If Sergio Vartolo’s approach to Palestrina can be described as baroque, then Longhini’s is resolutely renaissance – all balance and poise. The singers employ minimal vibrato, and the emphasis is on the smoothness of the overall sound rather than the qualities of individual voices. Having heard most of them in other contexts, I may say that they achieve that compromise very successfully. On the other hand, I did at times miss the sense of drama that so many Italian performers seem to share (however different their approaches).
Both of the Masses on this disc are based on madrigals by Cipriano de Rore. Of the Masses, Qual’e il piu grande amore is the more engaging work, and the more convincing performance. Palestrina adds an extra cantus part to Rore’s original scoring, allowing the two top lines to participate on equal terms (i.e. in the same range). The texture is correspondingly brighter, the image more transparent. There are signs that the direction might have been a little more positive, for (as the booklet-notes remind us) the two Masses are sharply contrasted. But the same notes make another point: less than a third of Palestrina’s 104 Masses have been recorded, and these two are new to the catalogue. Listeners who may think Sergio Vartolo’s readings an acquired taste will find themselves on far more familiar ground here.'