Niquet appropriately creates a liturgical framework, weaving plainchant, motets and instrumental items around the main work; these also serve to contrast with and complement the sometimes gluttonously rich textures of the Mass itself…[He] does a heroic job of holding it all together. The end of the Credo detonates gloriously resonant brass depth charges…Altogether, a wonderful disc of music fully deserving discovery. Bravo Benevolo – and his latter-day champions!

The Benevolo Mass might be seen as musically static, but the acoustical blend of the divided choruses gives it a timeless sound, slow moving and absorbing. The voices and instruments of Le Concert Spirituel have the right sort of texture to bring this music alive, transporting the listener into a solemn and pensive state. The resonance of the venue also helps considerably give it depth and power. This is not everyday music, but rather one to elicit contemplation and majesty.

[Niquet makes] a powerful case for works whose sheer scope is both their appeal and a significant barrier to their rediscovery…What’s startling here is the range and intricacy of the polyphonic effects woven through Benevolo’s Mass. Monumentality is never reduced to one-note grandiosity… As compelling sonically as it is historically, this is a recording whose interest extends well beyond the specialist – a glorious re-creation not just of a lost composer but of an era

The Franco-Italian composer Orazio Benevolo (a contemporary of Carissimi, Cavalli and Cesti) was entirely new to me, but these pungent, high-energy performances by Niquet and his French period band suggest a musical imagination which yields little to Monteverdi: the Cantate Domino begins along similar lines to Pitoni’s better-known setting but quickly spirals into something infinitely more radical, and the breakneck climax of the Mass’s Gloria left me gasping for breath.