Ars Nova seem admirably suited to perform Gombert's sacred music, with its rich contrapuntal intensity and its exploration of vocal texture showing a predilection for the lower voices. Two examples are the quiet, low-lying five-part Ave Maria and the calm six-part Ave salus mundi. Ars Nova sing with a steady pulse and a good ensemble. It is refreshing to hear a new sound from a leading Scandinavian group, as much at home in twentieth-century music as in renaissance motets. In this recording the parts are distinct, yet the blend is excellent and the timbre pleasantly rough—such, I would guess, as would well fit the context of the sixteenth century, even that of the imperial household. One exception to the dense, low-cast texture is a setting for four higher voices of a verse from the Song of Songs, Si ignoras te—a tranquil and pleasing sound.
In the two Magnificats, and even more so in the great eight-part Credo, Gombert displays his skill at designing mighty musical structures. It happens unobtrusively in the Magnificats: the build-up begins about half-way through by the addition of an extra part at each successive entry of the choir. In the Mode I Magnificat, for example, after straightforward four-part settings of verses two and four, verse six (''Fecit potentiam...'') is set as a high trio, verse eight (''Esurientes...'') as a quartet, verse ten (''Sicut locutus est...'') as a quintet and verse 12 (''Sicut erat...'') as a sextet, for the final climax. The alternatim chant sections would have matched the polyphony better had they been performed in the style of the sixteenth rather than the twentieth century. In the Credo—an amazing piece of musical architecture—the over long pauses between the sections, particularly before ''Et incarnatus est'', rather spoil the continuity and flow. These few criticisms apart, however, the whole performance comes across with an almost unerring sense of style and proportion.'