Renaissance polyphony is generally held to be stately, calm, reassuring. But this programme of Palestrina’s six-part Missa sine nomine, complemented by five of his motets...

Renaissance polyphony is generally held to be stately, calm, reassuring. But this programme of Palestrina’s six-part Missa sine nomine, complemented by five of his motets and three by Marc'Antonio Ingegneri (c. 1535/36–92), was recorded after the Choir of Girton College, Cambridge, had undertaken a tour of Israel and Palestine. There the music and its texts (‘How can we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land?’) took on an extraordinary poignancy, with the dispossession and desperation of thousands of years ago animating the restrained dignity of Palestrina’s counterpoint with an unexpectedly topical intensity. The Girton College Chapel Choir has gained an impressive reputation as one of the most distinguished mixed-voice choirs at the University of Cambridge. As an international prize-winning ensemble comprising around 26 students, it has built its reputation through regular choral services in Girton College Chapel and frequent performances in parish churches and cathedrals across the UK. Choir members are all undergraduate or graduate students at Cambridge University.