The Sound and the Fury is the group formerly known as Vokalsolisten Ratisbona, directed by Thomas E. Bauer, and this is the first in a series of recordings of Renaissance repertoire for ORF.  If subsequent discs are of the calibre of this one, then we may expect something special indeed. Gombert, as Rob Wegman points out in eloquent detail in his note, is difficult to sing, and does not conform to aesthetic conceptions prevalent until recently of some Josquinian ideal in polyphony.

Clocking in at around 46 minutes, Gombert’s magnificent six-voiced Missa Quam pulchra es provides extensive evidence of these difficulties – essentially stemming from the composer’s oft-mentioned seamless style of counterpoint – but they are effectively nullified by the excellent blend of this group.  The density of the writing is such that it is frequently very difficult to determine exactly the number of voices singing at any one time, but the fact the group is one made up of soloists means that every line is as clear as possible, even when the polyphonic forest is at its most impenetrable.

To complete the disc there is a set of five motets, whose textual-musical rhetoric is often somewhat different from the Mass setting.  They include the lovely Ave Maria and the monumental Da pacem and Inviolata, whose opening gesture suggests some florid illuminated initial with cascades of pendant tendrils.  There can be no doubt that this is a very important addition to the Gombert discography. IVAN MOODY