The Yale Institute of Sacred Music, though possibly relatively little-known outside the USA, is an important and dynamic institution, and this new recording shows well the quality of its work. It sets out with the great advantage of being a disc of Biber’s liturgical music on a smaller scale.  No divisions into 53 parts here, but writing for four-part chorus (with soloists), and small ensemble of strings and continuo – the meat and drink of Biber’s life as a Kapellmeister, in fact.  Indeed, this is not a through-composed Vespers à la Monteverdi, since Biber left only settings of the Psalms and the very fine Magnificat (admittedly the lion’s share of the music). The sequence has therefore been intelligently completed with works by Mayr, Legrenzi and even the Emperor Leopold I, whose setting of Ave maris stella shows him to have been a gifted composer. Mayr’s Sancta Maria is also an extremely impressive work.

The (live) performances are lively and sensitive, and these young performers are already expert in their understanding and use of ornamentation and articulation.  The complaint might be made that the overall sound is sometimes a trifle pallid, but this of course has the advantage of highlighting any particularly colourful moments, and this is not music to benefit from a consistently over-gestural approach.  This is a fine contribution to the discography of this period. IVAN MOODY