For its new Glossa release of Josquin, Cantica Symphonia (which has given us recordings of Dufay, Isaac and Busnois in recent years) reflect modern performance thinking for one of the greatest composers in music. Giuseppe Maletto has united a strong group of Italian singers to provide distinctive accounts of motets including the Stabat Mater, the five-part Salve Regina, the seven-sectioned Vultum tuum cycle as well as the Ave Maria… virgo serena. To leaven this vocal density a team of organ, harp, fiddle, slide trumpet and sackbut add instrumental versions of a group of Josquin’s secular compositions, as well as selectively combining with the voices in the polyphony. Marco Bizzarini’s booklet essay traces Josquin’s elusive career path, which included Rome, Ferrara and possibly also Milan, and the importance in his output of sacred compositions of Marian works.
