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GRAMOPHONE (October / 2017)
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Reviewer: David Fallows

The first main virtue of this issue is that nothing here seems to have been recorded before, apart from Palestrina’s Mass Ut re mi fa sol la (of which they perform only the two Agnus Dei sections). The second is that Paul Van Nevel has assembled 10 of the very best singers for this kind of music from anywhere in Europe; and they do sound gorgeous. In addition, he has a very creditable group of four string players to accompany them.

But it is the kind of CD that leaves the listener asking whether there is perhaps a hidden point that is not explained. All in all, it is probably true to say that the Huguenot era was not particularly productive of fine and challenging music. The three psalm-settings with which Van Nevel begins are about as threadbare as any of the earliest Protestant music, and they remain so despite the changes in texture and orchestration applied here.

Then comes the surprise, namely music for the papal ‘celebration’ of the St Bartholomew’s Day Massacre in Paris. As it happens, we know nothing of the music performed on the occasion, but the programme is nicely filled with two laude and the Palestrina movement already mentioned.

The disc ends with five larger pieces, all apparently composed after the 1572 massacre more or less put an end to the Huguenot movement as a major religious influence. Some of these pieces are more interesting than others; and the closing work – Claude Le Jeune’s Povre coeur entourné – works particularly well.

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