The Golden Age, vol. 1, Europe.

The selling power of recordings of `Renaissance choral masterpieces' of some sort or another seems never to diminish. In recent years, however, the presentation of such discs has begun to vary, and three very different recordings are under review here. Paul Van Nevel's Huelgas Ensemble present a selection of the largest-scale Renaissance polyphony on Utopia triumphans (Sony SK 66261, rec 1994). The choir of Westminster Abbey with the Abbey Consort, under Martin Neary, have recorded a disc of music from the Italian peninsula, rather unimaginatively titled Miserere (Sony SK 66615, rec 1995), while Magnificat, under Philip Cave, present the first in a series--The Golden Age, volume I: Europe (Linn CRD 052, rec 1995) offers a eurosceptic view of a Europe without Britain, and consists of well- and lesser-known works by, among others, Victoria, Rebelo, Palestrina and Lassus.

The Huelgas Ensemble, in this incarnation consisting of over 40 singers, present a larger-than-life disc. Beginning with Tallis's Spem in allure and ending with Striggio's Ecce beatam lucern, the recording also contains the Sanctus and Agnus Dei from Costanzo Porta's triple-choir Missa Ducalis, large-scale canonic works attributed to Josquin and Ockeghem, and Gabrieli's four-choir motet Exaudi me domine. For me the biggest surprise of the recording was the Porta, an extraordinary piece based on a cantus firmus and containing tropes praying for the protection of Duke Cosimo I de Medici. The works rather questionably ascribed to Josquin and Ockeghem are interesting; notably, the …