This is a richly rewarding record, full of surprises and revelations. Costanzo Festa is hardly a household name (before this disc none of his music was available in the catalogue), but he is shown here to be a composer of versatility, imagination and, at his best, formidable power and eloquence. Probably born in Florence during the last decade of the fifteenth century, Festa worked at both the French court and for the Papacy in Rome; a figure widely admired by contemporaries, he is effectively the most significant Italian composer writing between the time of Josquin and the arrival on the scene of Palestrina. Indeed, as the sacred music on this recording makes clear, many of his contrapuntal procedures anticipate those of the later master of the high renaissance style.
The Huelgas Ensemble perform this music with great intelligence and sympathy. Phrasing is careful, ensemble is good and the group well balanced, while the way in which instruments have been disposed is both imaginative while being entirely within the possibilities of contemporary practice. Speeds are sometimes a little on the brisk side (one or two of the madrigals are presented in a rather cursory way), but at its best the group produces an open, rich and fresh sound underpinned by a firm bass line which allows the music to speak clearly and effectively. The high points are undoubtedly the two laments; Quis dabit oculis (an elegy on the death of Anne of Brittany, Queen of France during Festa's time there), and the five-part motet Super flumina Babylonis. The latter is a remarkable piece, reminiscent of Josquin's celebrated motet Absalon fili mi, not only in general tone but also in its use of Old Testament literary sources and in its exploration of harmonic areas that are remote from common usage of the time. The Huelgas here perform it twice, once with the upper voices (one of which sings the cantus firmus to the text ''Pie Jesu Domine'', the last line of the Dies irae) supported by viols, and once in an unaccompanied vocal version. For this alone the disc is worth buying.'