Jean Richafort is one of many composers who might be known under the collective name‚ ‘School of Josquin’. The notion existed even during the lifetime of these figures‚ but it refers less to matters of style than to the extent of the elder composer’s influence‚ which is traceable in all sorts of ways. The centrepiece of this new disc‚ Richafort’s imposing Mass for the Dead (Requiem)‚ most assuredly bears this out. Its movements are shot through with two recurring cantus firmi‚ both replete with Josquinian resonances: the Latin ‘Circumdederunt me gemitus mortis’ (‘The groans of the dead surround me’)‚ used by Josquin himself‚ and a phrase from ‘Faulte d’argent’‚ one of his most famous songs: ‘c’est douleur nonpareille’ (‘It is pain without equal’)‚ here transplanted from its secular context to evoke the torment of the damned. The suggestion that the Requiem’s deployment of these Josquinian subjects constitutes a memorial to the composer is certainly not new; and while it is perfectly plausible‚ it is slightly mischievous of Harmonia Mundi to present the conjecture as established fact (as it does on the disc’s cover). On a musical level‚ Paul Van Nevel ensures that these quotations are heard by doubling them periodically at the octave‚ so that they appear at the top of the texture. This is one of his signature eccentricities (regular readers of Gramophone may know these as ‘Van Nevellisms’)‚ and though it may have slightly more justification here than elsewhere‚ one still baulks at a feature that plays havoc with Richafort’s dense textures and careful contrapuntal contrivance. (On another level‚ the failure to repeat the first section of the Introit is puzzling.) There‚ I’ve got off my chest the things that bother me most about this recording. These things must be said and yet‚ this is a splendid disc for all that. Van Nevel’s ensemble is on cracking form‚ and his programming deftly combines moods and registers. After the uniformly sombre tone of the Requiem come three variously scored‚ exuberant motets (the Salve Regina is particularly resplendent) and three equally varied chansons. Trut avant is a straightforward drinking song‚ and Il n’est sy doulce vie an equally typical (though wonderfully luxuriant) celebration of love‚ redolent of the mid­Renaissance at its very best. Van Nevellisms there are here too‚ but not nearly so obtrusive. His eccentricity is not always a small price to pay for performances of this quality‚ but it is still worth paying.