The names above may be unfamiliar to you – they certainly were to me – but they are representatives of what the Poles call their golden age of music: the first half of the 17th century. The earliest composer is Mikolaj Zielenski, who was employed at the court of the Primate of Poland. The dates of his birth and death are unknown, but a key fact is that his surviving output consists of two volumes published in Venice in 1611. Whether or not Zielenski or his contemporaries visited the place, most of the pieces here are resolutely in the polychoral style of Giovanni Gabrieli and Monteverdi. The exceptions include motets by the much later composer Stanislaw Szarzynski, which look to North Germany rather than Italy.

The disc opens with the atmospheric tolling of a bell, before the brass enter with the dactylic, canzona-like figure that introduces Triumphalis dies by Marcin Mielczewski (d1651). Scored for two four-part choirs, this is a sumptuous celebration of St Stanislas, the instruments both punctuating and accompanying the choral writing. There is florid solo music too, as there is in the other Mielczewski motet, Audite et admiramini.

The disc is subtitled “Pekiel and his Contemporaries”, and the Pekiel Mass is at the heart of the programme. The movements are linked by a harmonic head-motif that recurs, hauntingly, in the course of the Credo. Pekiel’s Audite mortales, the first Polish oratorio, includes a beautiful unaccompanied trio for high voices.

A larger vocal group would have better withstood the weight of cornetts and sackbuts; but there is much to enjoy here, and the disc can be warmly recommended to anyone prepared to investigate such unfamiliar fare. The names above may be unfamiliar to you – they certainly were to me – but they are representatives of what the Poles call their golden age of music: the first half of the 17th century. The earliest composer is Mikolaj Zielenski, who was employed at the court of the Primate of Poland. The dates of his birth and death are unknown, but a key fact is that his surviving output consists of two volumes published in Venice in 1611. Whether or not Zielenski or his contemporaries visited the place, most of the pieces here are resolutely in the polychoral style of Giovanni Gabrieli and Monteverdi. The exceptions include motets by the much later composer Stanislaw Szarzynski, which look to North Germany rather than Italy.

The disc opens with the atmospheric tolling of a bell, before the brass enter with the dactylic, canzona-like figure that introduces Triumphalis dies by Marcin Mielczewski (d1651). Scored for two four-part choirs, this is a sumptuous celebration of St Stanislas, the instruments both punctuating and accompanying the choral writing. There is florid solo music too, as there is in the other Mielczewski motet, Audite et admiramini.

The disc is subtitled “Pekiel and his Contemporaries”, and the Pekiel Mass is at the heart of the programme. The movements are linked by a harmonic head-motif that recurs, hauntingly, in the course of the Credo. Pekiel’s Audite mortales, the first Polish oratorio, includes a beautiful unaccompanied trio for high voices.

A larger vocal group would have better withstood the weight of cornetts and sackbuts; but there is much to enjoy here, and the disc can be warmly recommended to anyone prepared to investigate such unfamiliar fare.