Excitement, relief and the eventual disappointment generated by the Bishop of London’s premature announcement in 1555 that Queen Mary and her husband, King Philip of Spain, were going to have a baby is reflected in the sumptuous music on the new Signum CD performed with supreme artistry by the vocal group, Gallicantus. The repertoire, rich with history, includes the little-known, brightly optimistic Te spectant Reginalde, Poli by Orlande de Lassus in honour of Cardinal Reginald Pole, Mary’s second cousin, returning from the continent to succeed Cranmer as Archbishop of Canterbury. At the other extreme there is the dark, penitential and richly polyphonic Peccavimus by Christopher Tye, written as England prepared to return to Rome. Both feature the arrow-straight soprano of Zoë Brookshaw holding her own on lines that 20 boys would once have sung.