Le Parlement de Musique stages an imaginary meeting of three composers, each representing one of the signatories at the treaty of Vervins (1598) that marked the Catholic world’s official acceptance of the formerly Protestant Henry IV on the throne of France. Though the programme is fashioned like a liturgical reconstruction, Martin Gester describes it as evocation rather than re-creation (a refreshingly realistic claim). Apart from Du Caurroy’s Te Deum, the performance during the service of the other works recorded here is purely conjectural, not to say unlikely: surely the singing of a Mass ‘for victory’ to celebrate a peace treaty would have counted as provocation. (And yet, Victoria’s setting takes as its basis a song that celebrates a French victory, Janequin’s La Guerre).
The third party is the papacy, represented by Giovanni Maria Nanino. Gester’s approach is festive and opulent, with viols, sackbuts, cornet, lutes, theorbos and organs in full array: the resulting noise is one of the disc’s most attractive features, and compensates for a certain unevenness in the choral sound. There are as many as four countertenors on the top lines, but in the Mass’s most extrovert tuttis they seem to be spread a bit thin. In fact, the purely instrumental numbers are the more consistently successful, and by themselves they make the disc worth having (the Great organ of the abbey of Saint-Michel-en-Thierache makes a wonderful sound). This slight reservation notwithstanding, each work is positively characterized in terms of its ethos, with more than a hint of national disposition: conservative and solemn (Du Caurroy), raucous and jubilant (Victoria), showy and virtuoso (Nanino). Regardless of rationale, this is a successful piece of programming: the ear is kept constantly engaged and titillated.'