Album: New York Polyphony, Tudor City (Avie)

This American vocal quartet specialises in renaissance polyphony, here proving equally adept at classic English and Latin devotional pieces by such as Thomas Tallis and William Byrd, and newer works in the style, written for the quartet by Andrew Smith.

The transitions between the ages are seemlessly effected, particularly impressive during back-to-back old and new performances of "Magnificat À Quatre". Recorded in New York's Cathedral of St John the Divine, these are beautifully blended voices of individual distinction, with the soaring counter-tenor lending a spectral edge to the harmonies of Byrd's "Ave Verum Corpus" and Smith's "Surrexit Christus".

Download this: Ave Verum Corpus; Magnificat À Quatre; Surrexit Christus