Machaut’s Mass has been recorded so often that one can hardly blame recording artists for wishing to try something new. Gérard Geay’s introductory text is an account of the choices regarding musica ficta (that is, unwritten accidentals implied by the contrapuntal context) made by him and the singers of Musica Nova. These will surprise not a few listeners, particularly since Geay is, finally, somewhat vague as to precise details. But it’s symptomatic of the fixation in certain quarters on questions of pitch that he is completely silent on an aspect that some will find far more problematic: the very slow tempi adopted in all the isorhythmic sections – that is, most of the Mass. In this, Musica Nova strike out pretty much on their own (though such tempi were more common, say, 40 years ago); but it’s a question of what is gained by such an approach, which is at odds not only with the tempi chosen for the syllabic movements (Gloria and Credo) but also the motets (all isorhythmic) that make up the rest of the disc. I should note that the Kyrie invocations here alternate not with sung plainsong but with organ diminutions on the chant taken from the Faenza Codex – a sensible choice in view of the length of the sections.

To my ear, Musica Nova’s sound is less well suited to Machaut or Vitry than it was to Ockeghem. A clue to the reason is the success of the three male soloists in tackling the motet Musicalis sciencia: I freely confess to feeling that single voices do this repertory incomparably better justice – a sentiment reinforced by the disappointingly flat Armes, amours that rounds off the disc, in which virtually nothing of the text may be discerned.