Mazzocchi/ Carissimi/ Frescobaldi/ Palestrina: Vespro della Beata Vergine

Cantus Cölln's latest disc is essentially a reconstruction of a Marian Vespers service as one might have heard it in Rome in the mid-17th century. Roughly half the music - including the Psalms and Magnificat - is by Virgilio Mazzocchi, choirmaster at St Peter's from 1629 to 1646. The antiphons, however, are by Carissimi; the one purely instrumental piece is attributed to Frescobaldi; and Palestrina's setting of the Ave Maris Stella is also included, largely to support the argument that the other composers should be considered his rightful successors. Carissimi excepted, this is wide of the mark, though the disc provides ample evidence of how Palestrina's austere yet sensual polyphony evolved into Mazzocchi's baroque profusion, with Carissimi and Frescobaldi stylistically in between. The recording, made in a church in Mandelsloh near Hanover, is on the reverberant side and doesn't quite convey how this music might sound in a vast space, but the singing and playing are ravishing. The Carissimi antiphons are breathtaking, and the period brass ensemble Concerto Palatino do wonders with the Frescobaldi.