Search - Nicolas Gombert, Declan Costello, William Towers :: Gombert: Missa Tempore paschali; Magnificat octavi toni

Nicolas Gombert may just have been a Bill Clinton-style "comeback kid": he died an admired and well-compensated composer of church music despite a scandal that got him briefly sentenced to the galley of a ship. He has been underrepresented on disc, probably because his restless imitative style can sometimes be difficult for nonspecialists to grasp. So Hyperion's series of Gombert recordings is valuable for more than just the lovely performance by Henry's Eight. The highlights of this release include In illo tempore, the motet on which Monteverdi based the Mass he published alongside his Vespers of 1610, and the Missa tempore paschali for Easter, written mostly for 6 voices but using 8 in the Credo and 12 in the final Agnus Dei. --Matthew Westphal