A pupil of William Byrd, Thomas Tomkins' technique as a contrapuntalist was second to none, as can be heard in the Great Service or the anthem O God, the proud are risen against me. In this respect alone he was the composer who most obviously continued Byrd's achievement.

The Tallis Scholars under director Peter Phillips have cultivated a cool, Apollonian sound in a cappella Renaissance vocal music that can be awe-inspiringly beautiful in Flemish polyphony, and especially in the spare English repertory for which they are named. This small, mixed-gender adult choir might not seem an ideal group to take on the darker hues of Tomás Luís de Victoria, but the set of Lamentations of Jeremiah recorded here, music for Holy Week, is quite well suited to their talents. As Phillips points out in his elegant notes (in English, German, and French), Victoria's "Spanish" style was largely forged in Rome, and his somberness was in many ways a personal rather than a national characteristic.

A well-packed disc, for those who love a good long play. But, more to the point, the singing and recording are outstanding. And what music is here enshrined! … readers may be a little weary of praises for The Tallis Scholars. There is no other course. This is surely one of the supreme choirs of the world. Peter Phillips, whose notes are revelatory reading, has reached the heart of this sublime music.

With their faultless intonation, transparency of line, and ideal balance between emotional intensity and cool intellectuality, the Tallis Scholars are unrivalled in this repertoire. Peter Phillips highlights the individuality of the different voice-parts - making their individuality comprehensible - yet forms a homogeneous overall sound. By comparing the early Missa Ad fugam and the later Missa Sine Nomine Josquin's stylistic development becomes clear: the thick sound-world of the early work, with its melismatic long-drawn-out lines, yields to a much tauter style, full of rhythmic contrasts without forfeiting any complexity.

Turn down the lights and get out your joss-sticks for this one: a selection of sixteenth-century Tenebrae music for Holy Week, among the most evocative parts of the liturgy. Since they had already made successful recordings of the Brumel, Tallis and White, it was a good idea for The Tallis Scholars to add new recordings of Tenebrae settings by Alfonso Ferrabosco the Elder and Palestrina. As Peter Phillips points out in his brief note, the only textual feature they have in common is their all ending with the passage “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, convertere ad Dominum Deum tuum”. Otherwise the texts that the various composers selected from the Lamentations of Jeremiah are quite different; but all show an intensity and a devotional power that work cumulatively to produce a remarkably satisfying disc. And it is endlessly fascinating to hear the different approaches to these anguished texts.

During the years before and after 1600, Portugal produced a small crop of masterful Requiem Masses. All of them seem to have taken Victoria's famous six-voice Requiem as a model, setting the traditional chant melodies in long notes in one of the soprano parts, accompanied by harmonious chords rather than imitative counterpoint. The Requiem by Duarte Lôbo presented here is a particularly good example. Like his compatriots, Lôbo composed his Requiem in a major tonality; Victoria's captivating gloom is replaced by an equally captivating sweetness–this funeral music is anything but morose. The Missa vox clamantis is altogether more extroverted, with a striking octave leap that begins every movement. Peter Phillips and the Tallis Scholars give the skillful, sonorous performances we've come to expect from them.

'Is this great music or merely weird?' wrote John Milsom in his review of this album in Gramophone. Gesualdo's sacred music, like his secular madrigals, is both eccentric and passionate.

This release by The Tallis Scholars, the seventh of nine in a project to record the complete masses of Josquin des Prez, explores two unique and contrasting works. Missa Gaudeamus represents Renaissance artistry at its most intense. Based on the first six notes of a chant melody, it deploys mathematics in a number of clever ways. Missa L'ami Baudichon represents Renaissance artistry at its most playful. It is based on just three notes from a secular folksong that sounds distractingly like the opening of Three Blind Mice. Known as the most adventurous composer of his time, Josquin's restless, searching intellect is on display in all his works.

Renaissance composers frequently based sacred works on the melodies of secular songs, which were typically placed in the tenor part as a cantus firmus. The mixing of such elements, as in Josquin's Missa Di dadi and the Missa Une mousse de Biscaye, which were based respectively on the chansons N'aray je jamais mieulx and Une mousse de Biscaye, was common practice in the 15th century. However, Josquin also used images of dice in the tenor part of the Missa Di dadi, which have been interpreted as symbols representing time ratios, indicating the length of notes relative to the other three voices.

Following on from and designed along the same lines as the Guide to Period Instruments, this boxed set includes an exhaustive introductory text as well as a great quantity of music excerpts on the set’s eight CDs. These extracts have been taken from the extensive repertoire recorded by Ricercar over many years, with excerpts from recordings kindly provided by our colleagues from Harmonia Mundi, Gimell, Accent, Alpha and Sony supplementing our programme where necessary. The Lutheran repertoire of the Renaissance has remained for all intents and purposes unrecorded up until now; the tracks illustrating this repertoire together with other excerpts have been recorded specially for this compilation by Vox Luminis.

This release is the last in a series of nine Josquin mass recordings by The Tallis Scholars and their director, Peter Phillips. The series began in 1986, and Phillips has been the group's director since it was founded in 1973. The Tallis Scholars are, thus, a well-oiled machine, and they're capable of a flawless vocal blend that's hard to match even among England's superb collection of small choirs (the Scholars are ten strong). There are other ways to sing Josquin, but their hyper-clarity works well in his music, for it brings out the music's striking, Bachian complexity. This particular album, despite its ultimate position, is especially good, for in the Missa Hercules Dux Ferrarie and Missa Faysant Regretz, it's best to have no distractions from the strikingly bold underlying structure.

Tallis Scholars are among the world's preeminent choral ensembles. Cultivating a distinctive vocal sound backed by impeccable scholarship, the group has helped raise the general level of interest in Renaissance choral music in Britain and beyond through a large catalog of recordings and numerous international tours.

Playing Elizabeth’s Tune, the television programme which The Tallis Scholars made for the BBC, explored the life and music of William Byrd, Catholic composer for a Protestant queen. In doing so it also illustrated the different styles which Byrd cultivated in his vocal music. This disc is a tribute to the all-round nature of his genius – to the kind of composer who could turn his hand to anything, and transform it.

The Tallis Scholars are hands down the most difficult performing ensemble in the world to review. The reason is simple - they have been around for so many years and have produced such a consistent and high quality product, both on record and in the concert hall, that there is simply little to say about them anymore except "bring it on!"