Pipelare: Missa L'Homme Ame / Chansons / Motets

The Huelgas Ensemble herein asserts itself as a leader in the preservation, interpretation and rediscovery of 15th-century music. Pipelare's music, employing imitative counterpoint, homophony, Phyrgian modes and "polyphonic melancholy," is spectacularly interpreted through Huelgas' impressive ability to raise drama from one vibrato-less core. The pièce de résistance is the Missa L'homme arme, with Ol' Man Profundo creating darkness of far- reaching beauty and spine-tingling chills, especially in the Credo's Amen. This recording from Belgium (the country of this magical music's origin) is ultra satisfying, the result of the exquisite ensemble unity, and a source of musical education thanks to Van Nevel's scholarly program notes. --Barbara Eisner Bayer