The Sound and the Fury - Paradise Regained: Ockeghem (2006)

If Ockeghem's Missa L'Homme Armé was the earliest such to be composed, then perhaps it is not easy to understand why Dufay, Busnois, Caron and others may have been inspired to create their own mass using the tune as the cantus firmus. Ockeghem's work seems under-ambitious by comparison, almost simplistic - the cantus firmus remains easily recognisable, retaining the original rhythm, not stretched out to unfathomable lengths, nor excessively ornamented and buried under immense counterpoint - it's as though he wanted the tune to come to the fore. In the light of this, it seems odd in a way that the ensemble The Sound and the Fury have chosen to retain the L'Homme Armé lyrics in the tenor part at certain points of this performance, a practice not to my purist taste. But the relative simplicity of construction does not take anything away whatsoever from the beauty of this work - the Agnus Dei in particular to me is one of the most enrapturing mass movements I have heard.

In stark contrast, worlds apart from the earlier mass, stands the Missa Prolationum, a work not based upon a cantus firmus but a composition entirely from scratch. It solves a theoretical and mathematical problem involving "mensural canons", and is a monument to Ockeghem's technical skill and wizardry. This work somewhat coloured Ockeghem's reputation for a long time after his death, resulting in him being seen as just too intellectual and not a composer whose works have genuine appeal, but then the Missa Prolationum was rarely actually performed until recently. Anyone who does hear this will find a richly rewarding piece indeed.

This disc did not instantly grab hold of me in quite the same way as the previous disc I had heard by TS&TF of Guillaume Faugues; rather it is more subtly beguiling and seducing, and repeated listenings have brought me to judge this disc as being of the same high standard. The ensemble here consists of five performers, with a soprano added. One might fear that employing such instead of a countertenor might bring some imbalance alongside two tenors, baritone and bass, but the sound spectrum feels spot on. The booklet notes unfortunately provide no further information as to which personnel are performing in each of these four-part masses, whether a subset of the five in each or whether there is some doubling up happening. All the discs in this series are live recordings, which gives them an ever so slightly rough edge but which merely adds to the immediacy, intensity and aesthetic for the listener.

The disc comes in a foldout digipak with booklet. Notes are provided in German and English. Latin sung texts are provided with German translation alongside and English translation separately.