Mazzocchi has several strikes against him – first, his production is exclusively vocal, and so inaccessible to listeners who don't know Italian or Latin or both. More importantly, even at this late stage in the early music (and perhaps due to reason number one), most of his work still remains inaccessible in modern editions (for example, the book of madrigals from 1638, with 24 works was only excerpted with a modern edition presenting six). The late (1664) collection of Sacrae Cantiones is available complete

Not only is there first-rate music here, but it is most winningly performed by Les Paladins. Particular applause must go to the excellent bass singing of Renaud Delaigue, who carries off deep and florid parts (not an easy combination!) with great panache. Another delectable moment is provided by the trio of sopranos Monique Zanetti and Valerie Gabail with tenor Benoit Haller, with floating and seductive tones at the opening of Breve è la vita nostra. Indeed, this moment is too brief, since here (and elsewhere in the disc, for reasons of time?) the ensemble omits verses in strophic arias (we might never have known, had the booklet not included them).

A final quibble: this is the sort of disc that drives librarians and catalogers mad, since it provides the titles of the works, but not the information about which of the composer's publications the works are drawn from. Try to rectify this next time, please! Nevertheless, this is a most valuable contribution to the yet-small Mazzocchi discography. Warmly recommended.

Tom Moore