CD: De Monte: Missa Ultimi Miei Sospiri; Magnificat Sexti Toni; Motets

Phillipe de Monte (1521-1603) came towards the end of the great Renaissance line of Flemish-born composers, and, though he is less well-known now than predecessors such as Ockeghem and Josquin, he was perhaps more prolific than any of them. He travelled widely across Europe, working in Naples and in the court of Philip II of Spain, before eventually becoming kapellmeister to the Austrian Hapsburgs in Vienna and Prague. That long career produced 34 books of madrigals, more than 250 motets and 38 masses. Cinquecento's small sample from this vast output concentrates on the sacred music, though it ends with a secular madrigal by Philippe Verdelot, Ultimi Miei Sospiri, on which the De Monte mass is based, and which provides the material for the opening of each of its movements. It's mostly restrained, serene music - relatively conservative by contemporary standards, but occasionally more dissonantly expressive, as in a brief Miserere that Cinquecento also include. It is all done beautifully, and is lucidly recorded.