Church composers in 16th-century Portugal produced an extraordinarily rich collection of masterpieces that were all but forgotten until the choir of Westminster Cathedral, conducted by James O’Donnell, added them to their repertoire.
The present disc features works composed under Spanish oppression, including João Rebelo’s Panis Angelicus. The boys sustain stratospheric top lines in the works by Pedro de Cristo, many of which were thought lost in the Lisbon earthquake of 1755. We would certainly have been poorer without the delicious dissonance of his Ave Maria or the stereo tennis of Magnificat.
(Hyperion)