Byrd • Tallis Byrd Exsurge Domine. Gradualia, Vol 2: Pentecost -Introit: Spiritus Domini; Offertory-. Confirma hoc, Deus; Communion Factus eat rcpcntc dc coclo sonus Infelix ego. Laetentur cod. Laudibus in sanctis. Ne irascans Domine. Vigilate. Tribulationes civitatum. Quis esthomo Tallis Nine Psalm Tunes for Archbishop Parker's Psalter

Stile Antico Hamionia Mundi El HMU80 7463(79'. DDD • TA) The Sixteen doing what they do best, and a novel slant on Tallis and Byrd Two new recordings, one from an established English vocal ensemble, the other from a younger one making its name, both presenting mostly well known repertory from the golden age of English polyphony. The more traditional programme comes from the older ensemble, the three composers concerned each represented by a betterknown work and a lesserknown one. The most revealing of the latter is Parsons's 0 bone Jesu, an extended setting of a text often set more succinctly on the continent during this period.

The Sixteen are on fine form in a repertory that often sees them at their most confident Parsons's Ave Maria, the best-known work here, is dispatched with considerable polish, and White's five-part Lamentations are equally fluent (and what wonderful settings they are!). The acoustic is hardly resonant, but this is actually an advantage in thicker textures; it leaves the singers little room to hide, but they seldom need to.

Stile Aniico's programme is informed by an interesting twist: a selection of Byrd motets is interleaved with an equal number of Tallis's Psalm Tunes ftrArchbishap Parker's Psalter. Curiously, their immediate juxtaposition lends Tails's (very) short settings the character of antiphons to Byrd's motets, several of which are among the most expansive he ever wrote. Better still, some of these tunes are very catchy -

I particularly enjoyed "God grant with grace", with its touchingly unassuming little canon.

Despite boasting a membership roughly equal to The Sixteen's, Stile Antico perform without a director, and the use of choral effects (gradual build-ups of intensity, or the opposite) doesn't seem overly staged. They certainly make a 'Stile Antico make a confident noise. . .next to The Sixteen they sound as though they have something to prove' confident noise, helped by a sound recording that brings out the natural bloom of their sound: next to their older colleagues they sound as though they have something to prove. It's admittedly impressive, and one wishes them well. Whether they say anything startlingly new about a repertory that is even better rehearsed than that on The Sixteen's recording is a moot point, however. In the search for "the big sound", there's a danger of further monumentalising pieces that were conceived with small ensembles in mind (pace the bookletnotes' somewhat defensive suggestions to the contrary). I'd welcome the opportunity to hear them in a repertory that calls for more positive interpretative decisions. Fabrice Fitch