Music from the Peterhouse Partbooks, Vol. 4

Blue Heron is engaged in a long-term project of performing and recording music from the Peterhouse partbooks, a set of manuscripts containing an extensive and mostly neglected repertoire of pre-Reformation English polyphony, much of it of superlative quality, by the most famous composers of the day as well as a host of unknown masters. Volume 4 in the series contains the world premiere recording of the only surviving Mass of Robert Jones, who was employed in the royal chapel during the reign of Henry VIII. Lyrical and mellifluous, the mass is a mature work, revealing a master composer at the height of his power. Nicholas Ludford was unquestionably a marvelous composer; his accomplishments better known today due largely to his music being preserved in some quantity. The completely unknown composer Robert Hunt left behind a stunning work highlighting the drama of the Stabat mater story. Exemplary … suffused with elegance and polish, … intense, expressively heightened (The Boston Globe on Volume 3) Among recent CDs in the polyphonic field, a recording by Blue Heron stands out … (The New Yorker)