Paul Bart

Laurence Hobgood, Brian Torff, and Paul Wertico's Union is a busman's holiday for the musicians. On their second album, they take tunes from everywhere – the folk song "Jacob's Ladder," Antonio Carlos Jobim's "Double Rainbow," Lionel Bart's "Where Is Love?" from the musical Oliver, and some originals – and have fun with them, sometimes playing slowly and thoughtfully, sometimes melodically and warmly, sometimes in cacophonous free improvisation. The spontaneity of the sessions is added to by the recording process, which is strictly direct to stereo, unmixed and unedited, and in that sense true jazz. The players are familiar enough with each other to play sympathetically, but since they only get together occasionally, there are plenty of surprises. It may not be their best, most considered work, but there's some fine playing. (William Ruhlmann, AMG)

The cycle of 125 variations that Costanzo Festa composed on the famous melody called La Spagna is conceived on a scale unique during the Renaissance, and may justly be described as a compositional tour-de-force. It has been comparisons to works such as Johann Sebastian Bach's Goldberg Variations. This budget priced reissue, released for the first time in 2003, features a selection of these variations performed by the Huelgas-Ensemble.

Jérôme Lejeune continues his History of Music series with this boxed set devoted to the Renaissance. The next volume in the series after Flemish Polyphony (RIC 102), this set explores the music of the 16th century from Josquin Desprez to Roland de Lassus. After all of the various turnings that music took during the Middle Ages, the music of the Renaissance seems to be a first step towards a common European musical style. Josquin Desprez’s example was followed by every composer in every part of Europe and in every musical genre, including the Mass setting, the motet and all of the various new types of solo song. Instrumental music was also to develop considerably from the beginning of the 16th century onwards.