This is a fascinating record, a selection of mid-16th-century Latin-texted pieces by English composers connected with the court, living through the troubled years of that time, doubtless bemused and totally uncertain of their future. But what is special here is that the singers, a French ensemble from Brittany, look with fresh eyes at this music, from the unusual viewpoint of Catholicism outside England.

The recital opens with a quiet performance of Robert Parsons’ well-known Ave Maria. Later we hear his O bone Jesu, an extraordinary setting with nine invocations to Christ, calling upon him by names that echo the great O Antiphons. Some tricky rhythms and melismatic passages look back to an earlier period. There are two alternatim hymn-settings, one of them Robert Whyte’s even verses from the Sarum Compline hymn for Lent, Christe qui lux es; the other, John Sheppard’s polyphonic verses from the Lauds hymn for All Saints, Christe redemptor omnium. Both are sung with alternating chant verses, smoothly and probably too fast to come anywhere near what they might have sounded like during the reign of Mary Tudor, but lovely all the same. Christopher Tye is represented by his powerful verse Ad te clamamus and the joyful Omnes gentes.

The composer best represented is Thomas Tallis, who takes us forward into the reign of Elizabeth, the fourth monarch under whom he served. His matchless O nata lux, his O sacrum convivium and several of his cries for deliverance are sung with due restraint. Surprisingly there is no mention of Byrd, perhaps the greatest of all the recusants, himself a pupil of Tallis and later friend and assistant to his beloved master.