Two of the undisputed choral masterpieces from sixteenth-century England, by one of the greatest English composers: John Taverner’s Missa Mater Christi sanctissima and Western Wynde Mass. The five hundred years since the works’ genesis are but as a watch in the night in these sublime performances from Westminster Abbey Choir and James O’Donnell.

These are very sound, lucid performances in every sense…in comparison with the Taverner Consort, James O’Donnell’s reading of Western Wynde is rather softer-centred, but…a work as resourcefully inventive as this both sustains and deserves such contrasting approaches. Gramophone