Over 10 years after its video release, it’s a pleasure to see this again on DVD. Few concerts can have been as successfully filmed as this one in the church of Santa Maria Maggiore, where Palestrina was both a chorister and chapelmaster. But this film goes well beyond using the church as an atmospheric backdrop; the space, with its stunning fifth-century mosaics, gold-laid ceiling and wealth of paintings and sculpture, becomes a kind of visual trope for the music.

Traditionally conceived long shots and close-ups of the performers and audience (including a row of scarlet-capped cardinals) establish the context, but then the camera becomes, as it were, a roving eye, focusing on details in the iconography of the mosaics, the painting, the sculpture, to complement and enhance the meaning of the texts. It sounds an obvious idea when described in this bald manner, yet it is extraordinarily effective, adding an extra dimension to experiencing Palestrina’s music and reinforcing its message in a seemingly natural and refreshingly undidactic manner.

The performances by The Tallis Scholars are equally ravishing: the pacing is measured to accommodate a rich acoustic, the sound is clear and direct, and intonation and ensemble are pretty much flawless: a veritable feast for ear and eye.