Contrapunctus really knows what to do with these pieces and from the very first item...the tuning is superb and the ensemble rock solid. Moreover, Owen Rees's interpretations are revelatory and even visionary...The next volume is keenly awaited.

Contrapunctus has chosen quite a low pitch and that enhances the richness, and you’ll hear the distinct vocal personalities in the group...as well as the slow, steady sense of pulse which we enjoyed, and the intriguing ambivalence between awe and fear, the vulnerability of the human condition.

There’s lovely balance and clarity of sound from as fine a clutch of voices...as one might wish

The singing throughout is consistently full-toned and focussed, but essentially for this repertoire constantly ready with expressive crescendos and decrescendos to mark textual changes in mood. With its nine highly experienced singers (boosted to ten for the larger works) Contrapunctus is the ideal group for this superb repertoire, and I look forward with eager anticipation to future CDs in this series.

Contrapunctus are special...These are understated performances whose moment-to-moment drama is less striking than the long, aching arcs they achieve over five or six minutes - director Owen Rees shows his experience here, making a case for a conductor in a climate in which musical democracy is increasingly king.

Rees’s choir brings an intensity of sound and dramatic dynamics, in music that contemplates the pain of death in ecstatic elation and sublime devotion.

Borrowing its title from the openings of the Nunc dimittis, the subject here is mortality and fear of the Day of Judgment. Rees’s accompanying notes tell a fascinating story of the survival of these partbooks. Whether you listen in Lenten penitence or in general hope of spiritual balm, the message is universal, the singing superb.