Dufay: Music for St. James the Greater

Guillaume Dufay was the most influential composer of the early Franco-Flemish School, a major figure in the transition from the late Medieval to the Renaissance style. In the Mass setting and the motets performed here by the outstanding Binchois Ensemble (named after another important composer of the period) you can hear the astringent harmonies and odd parallelisms of ars nova giving way to the sweeter and richer polyphony that would later blossom fully into the mature Franco-Flemish style. These are magnificent performances of bracingly beautiful music.