Schola Antiqua - Guerrero, F.: Choral Music (2007)

After the brilliant debut by Michael Noone’s Ensemble Plus Ultra on Glossa a couple of years ago of with Morales en Toledo, the long-awaited second release from one of the current highly-rated British groups is now here. In the same manner as with his earlier effort, Noone dusts off manuscripts in the Toledo archives to unearth for us pieces which a young Francisco Guerrero composed during the course of his brief stay by the banks of the River Tagus, at the time when he was a pupil of Cristóbal de Morales. That, however, is far from the end of the matter: from the period of Guerrero’s maturity Ensemble Plus Ultra has chosen the never-before recorded Missa Super flumina Babylonis, which it presents to us in a dazzling version assisted by the talents of the instrumentalists of His Majestys Sagbutts and Cornetts – and in this way, Michael Noone is returning to a way of performing for which he was known during his years of working with the Orchestra of the Renaissance, when together they made memorable recordings of Guerrero, Morales and Vivanco (all issued on Glossa). And just in case that wasn’t enough, this disc is also graced with the invaluable presence of Juan Carlos Asensio and his Schola Antiqua, the leading specialists in Gregorian chant from Spain: courtesy of Asensio, for the first time it has been possible to identify the plainchant fragment which serves as the basis for the mass, here offered here as a world première. Highly informed and entertainingly readable notes from Noone himself and fellow researcher Graeme Skinner complete an indispensable disc for all lovers of great Renaissance polyphony.