Kevin Moll, Schola Discantus - Ockeghem - The Two Three-Voice Masses: Missa Sine Nomine / Missa Quinti Toni (1995)

Johannes Ockeghem (c. 1410-1497) stands as perhaps the greatest of the Franco-Flemish composers of the 15th century. Digitally recorded in 1992, this disc presents a world-premiere release of his two surviving 3-voice masses; Missa Sine Nomine and Missa Quinti Toni. They are presumably early works by the composer and are among his most masterful creations. Complete program notes on the works and general issues of performance practice, along with the mass texts and translations, are enclosed. Produced by Gerald Gold.

Of course, there are other composers who wrote sacred music in the late Medieval period. When the primary source of commissions was the church, who else would they write for? And, of course, there are other composers of ethereal music in the late Medieval period. When the fundamental principal of composition was imitative modal counterpoint, how else could they write? But even among the composers of ethereal sacred music in the late Medieval period, the most successful, the most beautiful, the most ethereal, and, it could be argued, the most sacred was Johannes Ockeghem.

As the two masses on this disc demonstrate, Ockeghem was a virtuoso composer, but a virtuoso whose art conceals art, a composer of shimmering lines that glide and soar in waves of iridescent splendor. As performed with grace and skill by the eight voices of the Schola Discantus directed by Kevin Moll, Ockeghem's Missa De plus en plus and Missa Fors seulement are the work of a master, but a master whose music is wonderfully impersonal and blessedly universal. As sung with passionate purity by the Schola Discantus and directed with ardent lucidity by Moll, Ockeghem's music embodies the highest spiritual aspirations of humanity. Lyrichord's sound is clear, warm, and deep.