Francesc Valls (c1671-1747) was an adoptive Catalan who spent most of his career as the chapel-master of Barcelona Cathedral. Today he is best known for theoretical works and his Missa Scala Aretina (1702), one of the last pieces to make overt reference to Guido of Arezzo’s famous hexachord. An exceptionally informative booklet details the controversy surrounding it, ostensibly a matter of music theory but actually one of political allegiances. It’s a beguiling mixture of old and new, full of incidence, with choir, soloists and parts for strings and trumpet (the latter perhaps added for a subsequent performances a few years later). It would be worth hearing on its own but one’s appreciation is enhanced by Valls’s other works on the disc, which are extremely varied. There’s a wonderful concertato Lauda Jerusalem with daredevil clarino parts; a couple of chromatic pieces, entertaining if a touch overdone; a pair of penitential motets and an Ave Maria, all genuinely affecting; and a brace of villancicos, one of which prefigures the Mass’s subject in its opening bars and is programmed just before it.

The surface of the music is immediately engaging but it grows in interest with repeated listening. The performances are on a level with the programming and the music (and, incidentally, the handsome presentation): as in their fine Piazza Navona disc a few years back, the sense of occasion is palpable. La Grande Chapelle’s championing of Iberian polyphony has been winning them many admirers, and they’ve hit another bull’s-eye here.