Mark Shanks wrote:

>Andrea Hakari asks:
>
>>Any suggestions to branch out this early music obsession?
>
>By all means check out Johannes Ockeghem's masses, especially the Missa Pro
>Defunctis and the Missa Prolationum.  These are available on a single Naxos
>CD, but the performances are unusual for early music in having mixed choirs
>(rather than the all-male a la Hilliard) and the Missa Prolationum
>especially suffers from a "run-through" impression.  (I do like the
>performance of the Requiem on this CD, though.)

Not a budget release, but I recently acquired the Missa Mi-mi w/ Cappella
Pratensis/Rebecca Stewart (Ricercar 206402).  It is an unusual approach
(something to do with the idea that polyphony should be sung in the same
freely expressive style as chant), but has considerable appeal.  It
certainly made me hear the music in a new way.  (My first experience
was with the Pro Musica Antiqua w/ Safford Cape on Archiv LP.  Errch.)

Chris Bonds