a crescent moon of 13 clear, unaccompanied voices

24 July 2008
The Times
Geoff Brown

... a crescent moon of 13 clear, unaccompanied voices lifted the spirits singing two late 15th-century European Masses. In olden days the Proms treated early music with tongs, as you might hot toast. Tuesday showed the benefits of immersion, with contrasting Masses from Obrecht and Josquin des Prez, linked by the haunting chanson Malheur me bat sung to a new French text. Des Prez’s Mass supplied the most polished musical mathematics. Obrecht’s, wilder, gave the most vivid and tender display of emotion. Peter Phillips’s group had the measure of both.