In John Sheppard’s age the phrase “In the midst of life we are in death” carried significant meaning. Not only did turmoil in religion and politics serve to exaggerate an already pious fixation with death, but events such as the influenza epidemic of 1557-59 (which may have led to Sheppard’s own death) further heightened a general sense of mortality. Nearly 500 years later Sheppard’s setting of Media Vita continues to take our breath away.

This new recording is notable for its grand and spacious approach, taking a full half-hour, nearly five minutes more than Stile Antico’s award-winning account on Harmonia Mundi. Westminster Cathedral Choir’s ability to spin out the long arches of Sheppard’s polyphony places life and death in an awe-inspiring context. The...