Palestrina Missa Papae Marcelli (Naxos 8.550573)

On 3 January 2015, BBC Radio 3’s CD Review chose Oxford Camerata’s recording of Palestrina’s iconic Mass setting for Pope Marcellus as the best in the current catalogue. The recording was made in the summer of 1991, in spite of the fact that the sound engineer and producer had a car crash on their way to the recording venue and a cement mixer outside Dorchester Abbey held up the recording sessions when they eventually got under way.