Ludwig Böhme & Kammerchor Josquin des Prez - Josquin Despréz: Missa Pange Lingua (2011)

A group going by the name Kammerchor Josquin des Préz, or Josquin des Prez Chamber Choir, had better be able to deliver the goods, and indeed this roughly 15-member choir (there are 13 core members, plus added singers on various pieces) does so under the leadership of conductor Ludwig Böhme. The choir is mixed in gender, all adults, and Böhme gets an edgy, cutting sound out of his female singers without losing any of the lushness that marks his overall concept. The result is a sound that is both rich and very detailed, and for the main attraction, the Missa Pange Lingua, this is an unusually strong recording. Böhme takes the main polyphonic sections slowly, chiseling out each line, so that the cantus firmus of the mass, the monophonic hymn Pange Lingua (sung in full in advance of the mass, on track 3), is clearly heard as it proceeds through the various voices instead of being lost in the polyphonic flow. Then he sets up a sharp contrast: some of the sections with reduced forces are taken quite quickly, with the female singers giving the small note values almost the quality of light ornaments. It's a delightful effect, and who's to say what the actual intended tempos of this music might have been. Böhme and the choir are equally effective in the seven motets included, one of them the dubiously attributed but spectacular Sit nomen Domini (track 2). For those who like the sound of adult female singers in Josquin (choirboys were the original forces used in the upper lines), this comes strongly recommended. The engineering team of the German label Carus, working in the Lutherkirche Leipzig (wrong denomination, but very well suited to the music), ideally supports the project's artistic aims. -- James Manheim