The ubiquitous Western Wynde tune appears as the cantus firmus of a third Mass, on CD1 of Volume 2, by John Sheppard, where it joins the contents of another Sheppard CD, CDGIM016. The major challenge comes from The Sixteen on Hyperion – one of two Dyad 2CDs-for-1 sets of Sheppard’s music, CDD22022, on which Latin works, including the Western Wynde Mass, are juxtaposed with later music for the Anglican service. The Sixteen are marginally faster than the Tallis Scholars in the Mass, though by a smaller margin than in the Taverner – there’s a mere seven-second difference in the Agnus Dei, for example. It’s swings and roundabouts between the two groups – and both are now offered at effectively bargain price. If there’s anything in it, the actual Western Wynde tune comes over slightly more clearly against the polyphonic texture on the Gimell recording. If I hadn’t long ago bought three of the four Sheppard/Sixteen CDs when they were issued separately at full price, I wouldn’t hesitate to purchase CDD22022 or its companion disc to complement the Gimell recordings.

The Tallis Scholars round off the two volumes with three pieces by their namesake and seven by Robert White. If you are wondering why there is so little Tallis on these two volumes, Gimell have already released two excellent earlier 2-CD sets of The Tallis Scholars singing the music of William Byrd (CDGIM208) and his mentor Thomas Tallis (CDGIM203). There’s Taverner, Byrd, Tallis and William Munday, too, on The Tallis Scholars Live in Oxford (CDGIM998), another first-class recording which I intend to review in my November 2008 Download Roundup. Go for one or both of these joint gold-medallists among Tudor composers first, if you don’t already have recordings of their music. The two new sets offer the very worthy silvers and bronzes.

Robert White, the youngest of the composers on these two sets, is perhaps the most neglected of all those represented here. As far as I am aware, only one CD completely devoted to his music exists (Henry’s Eight on Meridian CDE84313), though individual works are included in anthologies, for example on Treasures of Tudor England (Coro COR16056) where The Sixteen sing two works included on the Tallis Scholars’ selection, the 5-part Lamentations and Christe qui lux es IV, together with music by Parsons and Tye – see review. Unusually, the Scholars offer slightly brisker performances of both works, but once again I could happily live with either.

Everything about these new Gimell reissues is high quality – performances, recordings, notes and presentation. The multi-lingual notes are excellent, if rather brief – to have amplified them would have made the booklets too fat; they’re already hard to get back in the case. The Holbein illustrations on the covers, labels and inserts set the seal on the enterprise.

Anyone who buys Gimell's 2-CD sets will have acquired a very sound base on which to build a library of this wonderful music."

-- Brian Wilson, MusicWeb International