With the Missa cuiusvis toni, Ockeghem achieves a veritable tour de force: a work having the advantage of being able to be executed in all church modes. In an era when composers vied with each other in virtuosity, this mass 'in whatever tone' became an unsurpassable model. Musica Nova recreates the four versions here for the first time on disc.

We sometimes forget how closely the didactic aspect of The Well-Tempered Clavier is bound up with the various upheavals of the 1720s which refocused Johann Sebastian Bach on his roles as father and teacher. His ambitious scheme for associating a prelude and a fugue with each of the major and minor keys could easily have become something of a tedious chore. But, on the contrary, it reveals Bach’s highly personal genius for constant creative renewal within the framework of two fixed forms. Richard Egarr presents the complete First Book on a copy by Joel Katzman of a 1638 Ruckers, using the temperament which recent research suggests Bach himself advocated.

François Ier, prince mécène, avait compris combien la musique pouvait servir sa politique de prestige : - musique officielle pour les grands événements diplomatiques comme l'incroyable match musical entre la Chapelle du roi de France et celle d Henri VIII d'Angleterre, lors de la messe du Camp du Drap d'Or restituée dans cet enregistrement ; - mais aussi musique de l'intime avec le répertoire le plus subtil, raffiné et savant entendu dans les châteaux du souverain Chambord, Fontainebleau… interprété par les meilleurs chanteurs et instrumentistes du royaume réunis au sein de la Chambre du Roy. Un festin de musiques inédites pour un roi François Ier, symbole d une Renaissance heureuse.

Besides cool playing and his uniquely smoky singing, Mose has great taste in material. "Hey Good Lookin'" fits right in with revisited versions of "I Love the Life I Live," "I Ain't Got Nobody" and "Baby Please Don't Go," complete with what the singer himself calls his distinctive "involuntary groan" during the piano solo. Teo Macero's intimate production makes it feel like you're right there in the studio.