mi Maestera

All gathered around a single music stand, the Cappella Pratensis sings from facsimiles of 15th-century manuscripts, adding plainchant between the movements of a Mass, using the pronunciation of Latin particular to the Low Countries in the 15th century–all in an effort to get as close as possible to the sound composers such as Josquin and Ockeghem intended. On this record, Rebecca Stewart and her singers bring their unique approach to Ockeghem's famously somber Missa Mi-mi–with extraordinary results. The Cappella doesn't have the robust sound or sense of momentum the Clerks' Group brings to this Mass; rather, their performance has a gentleness and an extraordinary stillness about it that feel genuinely devout.

Although Mozart is known primarily as a pianist, he was a violinist at the court of Salzburg until he walked out in 1781 to carry out an independent career in Vienna. These sonatas belong to two sets of six, one published in Paris in 1778, when Mozart first sought to leave Salzburg, the other in Vienna in 1781, right after he resigned. These pieces were meant to serve as a calling card, but Mozart went well beyond this sole intention.