Josquin’s Masses on L’homme armé have one of the most impressive recording pedigrees of the early Renaissance: Jeremy Noble’s Josquin Choir recorded Sexti toni and Bruno Turner’s Pro Cantione Antiqua recorded Super voces musicales to great critical acclaim in the ’70s (both now deleted)‚ and the Tallis Scholars gave us both together a decade or so ago in readings of commendable poise. These are all superb performances‚ and yet this latest offering from A Sei Voci strikes me as being the finest so far. There is superlative singing‚ a compelling‚ enveloping acoustic presence‚ and above all an interpretative logic‚ a sure­footedness of tempo and of phrasing that makes sense of some of Josquin’s most prolix and demanding music. First comes Sexti toni‚ which is sung for the first time in the range that the sources’ low clefs seem to imply. Where all the previous recordings I have heard have women on the top line (in a correspondingly higher tessitura)‚ here it is taken by countertenors‚ supplemented on occasion by the children of the Maîtrise des Pays de Loire. The sunny‚ almost genial tone of previous recordings gives way to a quite unsuspected‚ darker and more interiorised but still luminous sound world. The beginning of the Sanctus demonstrates the blend of countertenors and children; the ‘Benedictus’ (and the plainchant sections introducing each Mass) shows that the younger singers are in every respect a match for their elders‚ both individually and collectively. For the final Agnus Dei with its double­canon at the minim‚ Bernard Fabre­Garrus chooses a slower tempo than Noble‚ but does not go to the extremes advocated (quite unjustifiably‚ as some have argued) by Peter Phillips and others after him. The contrapuntal intensity of this section is wonderful to hear‚ especially after the restrained scoring of much of what precedes it. As to the sustained insight brought to the Mass as a whole‚ you need only listen to a reduced­scoring section like the second Agnus‚ which sounds a touch perfunctory in the Tallis Scholars’ recording‚ but is here completely involving. Still more impressive‚ perhaps‚ is the performance of Super voces musicales‚ Josquin’s most extended work‚ and certainly one of his most abstract and intellectually challenging. In the past‚ its very abstraction bred a suspicion that here was a work easier to admire than to love; there was an austere beauty in both the Tallis Scholars’ and Pro Cantione Antiqua’s performances‚ but also a certain feeling of intractability‚ of remoteness. Fabre­Garrus and his singers change all that: the intellectual toughness is still there‚ but in addition they make clear the Mass’s rhetorical logic in a way that neither previous recording quite managed. Every detail of contrapuntal balance and of shaping is beautifully judged. I was struck at every turn of this performance with a feeling of rightness‚ that this is how it should go. Josquin’s achievement has rarely appeared so compelling. In short‚ this recording is a revelation‚ the sort of event that makes you feel deeply privileged to be a reviewer. Bernard Fabre­Garrus’s Josquin series reaches a fitting climax; a pity that this is billed as the last of the series. A Sei Voci are about halfway towards a complete cycle of his Masses‚ and on this form one can think of no group better qualified to bring one to completion.