Choral & Song

This is the very first recording of Francisco Valls’s Missa Regalis. Though the Spanish Baroque composer is now obscure, in 1715 Valls’s contrapuntal rule-breaking as Barcelona Cathedral’s precocious maestro de capilla sparked a massive row about proper sacred vocal writing, and Valls was accused of ‘destroying the very essence of music’.

Missa Regalis, which he composed in 1740, is one of Valls’s greatest works. Like one of JS Bach’s career-end masterpieces, it is a compendium of craft. Valls championed Palestrina-styled polyphony, but was no mere epigone. Continuo – wonderfully realised here by two players from the Academy of Ancient Music with Edward Higginbottom on organ – enriches a five-part vocal polyphony full of sudden twists: from tight imitation, to plush homophony, to lyrical solos. Mixing Renaissance with Baroque practices, Valls plays the magician with a six-note scalar head motif that he varies and combines to dazzling effect.

Elegant and fresh-voiced, the Keble College choristers sparkle throughout their reading of Valls’s dense score. Matthew Martin deploys the choir’s blend and disciplined ensemble to give bite to motivic entries and word-play.