Dufay’s Mass for St James the Greater is one of the most intriguing works of the early 15th century. Certainly it is one of the most monumental. The plaudits garnered by the Binchois Consort’s award­winning interpretation were as much as anything a recognition of their achievement in making sense of so difficult and complex a piece. The question here is what fresh vistas Rebecca Stewart’s idiosyncratic approach to tempo‚ vocal production and ensemble can bring to music as rhythmically and texturally varied as this. The approach will be familiar from Cappella Pratensis’s previous recordings. Vocal timbres are slightly acidulated (partly due to the manner of Latin pronunciation)‚ dynamics swell and dip with impressive unanimity‚ and a fairly wet acoustic bathes the singers in an atmospheric halo reminiscent of groups like Anonymous 4‚ albeit put to greater expressive purpose. All these represent clear aesthetic decisions‚ and Stewart’s trademark slow tempos – though less extreme than on the Cappella’s previous recordings – would be unthinkable‚ nay impossible‚ without them. Equally‚ the discrepancy with those of the Binchois Consort’s recording could scarcely be more marked. David Fallows’s review of the latter remarked upon Kirkman’s knack of setting the correct tempo for each section. Is that to say that Stewart’s are incorrect? Surely any who hear this new recording could not doubt that they are listening to a carefully considered‚ deeply committed performance‚ no matter how eccentric they may judge it to be. Equally‚ those things that marked Kirkman’s Sancti Jacobi as special are greatly attenuated here: rhythmic exuberance‚ kaleidoscopic cross­rhythms‚ climaxes of bristling intensity. Like all Rebecca Stewart’s recordings‚ this is an inward experience‚ the opposite perhaps of the extrovert image of the young Dufay cultivated by the Binchois Consort. And much as my initial response to Stewart has been conditioned by that older recording‚ repeated listening of this new one opens the ear to other possibilities. That said‚ there are moments‚ like the alternation of two­ and three­voice sections in the Gloria and Credo‚ where the musical argument loses momentum; and the concluding motet in honour of St James (a logical pendant to the disc‚ also recorded by Kirkman) seems rather slack in comparison with the Mass. (There is a mis­reading‚ or mis­transcription‚ at the beginning of the verse of the ‘Alleluia’ at 2'38".) So although the issue of consistency undoubtedly leads one to prefer the Binchois‚ Cappella Pratensis can still cast a spell in one of their best‚ and most intriguing‚ recordings to date.