The Portuguese school of Renaissance composers is only just beginning to be explored. It came to maturity relatively slowly, and when it finally did, in the first half of the seventeenth century, much of the rest of Europe had moved on to a new musical world. Only countries on the edge of the continent – especially England, Poland and Portugal – continued as late as 1650 to give employment to composers who found creative possibilities in unaccompanied choral music. Even so, very few of these composers remained completely untouched by the experiments of Monteverdi and the new Italian Baroque school, so that their music became a fascinating hybrid, looking forward and back, often unexpectedly introducing twists and turns to what otherwise might be taken for pure ‘Palestrina’.

The extensive body of work by Anton Bruckner (1824-1896), which is often limited to his monumental nine symphonies (eleven if the two scores prior to the First are included), is characterised by the expression of his deep Catholic faith. Bruckner received his training as a young singer at the age of thirteen at the Abbey of Saint Florian, located a few kilometres from Linz in Austria. His faith is exalted in both his religious and orchestral works, as evidenced by his dedication of his Ninth Symphony to 'Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam'. It is not surprising that almost half of Anton Bruckner's catalogue, which consists of around 150 opuses in the Werke Anton Bruckner (WAB), are choral scores.

Alamire, under the direction of David Skinner, complete their survey of the choral works of William Byrd to mark the composer's 400th anniversary with this landmark recording of The Great Service and seven anthems. Emerging from centuries of obscurity, Byrd's Great Service, first revived in the early twentieth century, represents a pinnacle of English choral music. This recording commemorates the centenary of it's modern debut in 1924. With intricate polyphony and poignant text settings, Byrd's masterful use of ten voices reveals his unparalleled skill in capturing the essence of the Anglican liturgy. Complemented by seven anthems, thisalbum offers a comprehensive exploration of Byrd's rich, spiritual, and historical musical contributions.

Though he lived to be only 31, Nicolas de Grigny is remembered more than any of his contemporaries as epitomizing the French classical organ tradition. Technically and in his creative ideas Grigny demanded much more of his instrument (and his poor team of blowers!) than any of his predecessors, a fact that makes his works stylistically more akin to harpsichord than to organ practice at the time. In 1703, the year of his death, his wife published a first edition of his complete solo organ works, Premier Livre d’orgue (organists at the time typically composed only one or two books, then spent the rest of their lives improvising on them). A copy of this less-than-100-page volume eventually found its way to Germany and impressed a certain J.S. Bach enough that he reproduced it by hand for his own study.

Fantastic singing by the Finnish ensemble, who display a remarkable ability to convey the 'polyphony' - the sounding together of 'many tunes'. For their focus is very much on ensuring each voice is phrasing & singing their 'tune', with the lovely harmonies a result rather than their main target. It's good to hear an ensemble singing this way, all too often we hear the same 'vertical' (harmonic) approach that is the basis of the last 200+ years of concentration on tune+harmony, rather than a truly 'horizontal' focus on the lines of the music.

We possess many works by Jean Richafort, but very little biographical information on the composer. In the 16th century he was the object of veneration and admiration. The great Ronsard himself spoke of him in the most enthusiastic terms, and most of his contemporaries - Mouton, Morales, Gombert, Palestrina - based Masses on his music.

Anatoly Grindenko is one of the most important musicians working in the field of early Russian chant. With the male-voice Moscow Patriarchal Choir (amongst other groups) he has over the last few years brought new standards to the interpretation of the important but largely unfamiliar sixteenth- and seventeenth-century repertoire. This anthology is made up of chants from the Vigil Service (that is, Vespers and Matins) and a shorter selection from the Liturgy of St John Chrysostom.

…Early though it may be, [the Organ Concerto] is a joyous work that reminds me of Haydn's organ concertos….[The `Emperor's Mass'] soars majestically and would surely have been effective in honoring the emperor. The St Florian Boys' Choir is well disciplined, but they do have that raw sound often found in Central European–as opposed to British–choir boys…

"Why present just Handel's Coronation Anthems for King George II when you can present the whole Coronation?" seems to be the proposition that underlies this two-disc set, entitled The Coronation of King George II, 1727. And, thrillingly performed by Robert King directing the King's Consort and the Choir of the King's Consort, there seems no good reason not to, and every good reason to, do just that. King, who has led many stirring recordings of Handel's oratorios in his time, turns in splendid performances of the four Coronation Anthems, along with superb performances of ceremonial choral music by Tallis, Purcell, Gibbons, Blow, Farmer, and Child.

French countertenor Philippe Jaroussky, whose honey-sweet voice perhaps remains the best introduction to the countertenor voice for the skeptical, attempts something new with the collection of gorgeous and generally underrated Vivaldi works. It might, therefore, not be perfectly appropriate as an introduction to Jaroussky, but it's a daring and altogether engrossing project. The collection is accurately billed as a group of sacred works for alto, which makes it a surprising attempt for : his voice corresponds most closely to a mezzo-soprano range, and he has in the past taken on full-scale operatic arias where his voice blooms into a colorful and attractive top. Here he deliberately forbids himself that part of his vocal repertoire, even in faster, more athletic pieces that would seem to permit it.

The small Opus 111 imprint records many of the small gems of Baroque and Classical music. Here is a disc from the fine Belgian historical-performance ensemble Il Fondamento. Johann Adolf Hasse is remembered mostly as an opera composer, but he also contributed copiously to the large corpus of now-undiscovered religious music of the middle eighteenth century. The Requiem in C major that makes up the bulk of the present disc, in particular, was widely recognized for its originality in Hasse's own time, as is attested to by the large numbers of copies of the work that have been found all over Europe.

Byrd's music for the Anglican Church has been performed regularly in services for some 400 years. Perennial favourites recorded here include the Magnificat and Nunc dimittis from the Great Service and the anthems O Lord, make thy servant Elizabeth and Sing joyfully unto God.

Simply titled “Palestrina”, it is a new release by the world’s oldest choir – performed and recorded in the heart of the Catholic Church, and featuring works by the most celebrated Italian musician of his time and reformer of church music: Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina.

Capella Cracoviensis, recently discovered on the Alpha release Te Deum, returns here under the direction of Fabio Bonizzoni. Together they present a highly vigorous reading of these monumental works - Their virtuosity brings out to the full the magnificent counterpoint while never neglecting the text, so vital in the motet genre.

Peter Phillips has here deliberately paired two sharply contrasted parody Masses … the former … is marvellously bright and open and is given a correspondingly outgoing performance, while the latter, inflected with chromaticism and melodic intervals that constantly fall back on themselves, is darker-hued and more plaintive, a mood well captured here in the intensity of the singing. The recording, made in the Church of St Peter and St Paul, Salle, Norfolk is well handled and adds powerfully to these flexible, expressive and beautiful readings.