Tomas Luis de Victoria - Magnificat - Gramophone 'Soundings'

Linn Records, the specialist division of the famous Scottish hi-fi manufacturer have been quietly building up an impressive catalogue of recordings over the years.

Their tastes are wide and catholic and the recordings routinely excellent. Typically well-concieved is the Victoria Officium Defunctorum of 1605 from the choral group Magnificat. Working in the fine acoustic of St Jude on the Hill, Hampstead, North London engineer Philip Hobbs has achieved a lovely balance, with a very true-sounding tonal palatte.

The image is set fairly well back but no detail is submerged and the whole canvas is very well integrated, very plausible.