Sweelinck: Cantiones Sacrae. Choir of Clare College, Cambridge/Timothy Brown (Etcetera, two CDs)

If you've ever been captivated at a choral concert by Sweelinck's celebratory Hodie Christus natus est, you may have wondered why you've heard so little else by this Dutch master, who lived from 1562 to 1621. And if you listen to his complete Cantiones Sacrae, the set of 37 Latin motets from which Hodie comes, you may well wonder even more. Madrigalian high spirits, imaginative word-painting, Palestrina-like austerity, impassioned pleading all find their place. The choir of Clare College discreetly matches the range of this subtly varied music, sometimes employing a tactfully reticent organ accompaniment, and varying the body of voices used from one-to-apart up to their full complement of 26. Well worth exploring.

By Michael Dervan