Palmieri’s choral work is joined by works from Piazzolla and Spitalnik in a fun tango blend. The choir feels distant in the recording, requiring a few adjustments with levels for clarity.

It’s not clear why a couple of Astor Piazzolla and Ismael Spitalnik pieces have been tacked on to the end of Martin Palmeri’s rather beautiful Latin (American) Mass. The setting, for mezzo, choir, bandoneon and strings allows enough of the traditional to shine through without blunting the originality of Palmeri’s approach and his virtuosic handling of the instrumental elements. There are a couple of moments when Palmeri seems to change liturgical elements for the sake of changing them and the singers seem to sense the inauthenticity. That aside, this is a strong and committed performance of a valuable modern work.