Guardian Music — Choir of Merton College, Oxford/Nicholas; Phillips; Anna Steppler (organ)(Delphian)It's early for Advent (2 December), but let's assume the audience for this disc do not abide by a liturgical calendar when listening to music. The excellent mixed-voic... more info

Guardian Music — Tallis Scholars/Phillips(Gimell)The subject of Peter Phillips' latest crusade on behalf of renaissance composers who deserve to be better known is Jean Mouton (c1459–1522). A younger contemporary of Josquin, he's routinely grouped among the Franco-... more info

Guardian Music — From Serge Gainsbourg's Gallic gruffness to Donna Summer's simulated orgasms, tell us the songs that light your fireIt's official: the 50 Shades of Grey phenomenon knows no bounds. After boosting sales in hardware shops (readers are said to flock the... more info

Guardian Music — Devotional choral work, loved by novel's billionaire S&M enthusiast Christian Grey, reaches top of classical charts"The singing starts again … building and building, and he rains down blows on me … and I groan and writhe … Lost in him, lost in ... more info

Guardian Music — Royal Opera House; Cadogan Hall, LondonThe boos came as a surprise. They were aimed at the production team who lolloped onstage awkwardly for their bow, as production teams invariably do, after a smart, well-choreographed company curtain call which s... more info

Chorus.fm — *Gentlemen and Scholars* (http://gentlemenandscholars1.bandcamp.com) new EP, Bad Apples, is now available on their bandcamp page (http://gentlemenandscholars1.bandcamp.com). Submitted by G&SPatrick more info

Guardian Music — Sage, GatesheadThe Tallis Scholars' programme of Marian hymns was advertised as "Christmas masterpieces from around the globe", which seemed to be a triumph of opportunistic marketing over actual content; the inclusion of Monteverdi's celebration of ... more info

Detroit Free Press — Scholars are divided over whether Rembrandt, his students or some combination painted the seven heads of Christ at the heart of "Rembrandt and the Face of Jesus," including the one owned by the DIA that the museum attributes to Rembrandt. more info

Guardian Music — (Gimell)Authenticating many of Josquin des Prés's works, both sacred and secular, is a challenge for renaissance musicologists. In the first decades of the 16th century, when the Franco-Flemish composer's fame was at its height, the demand for his w... more info

Guardian Music — Tallis Scholars/Phillips(Gimell)The Tallis Scholars' association with Josquin des Prés (c 1450-1521), whose identity remains mysterious despite exhaustive scholarly digging, dates back to the late 80s when their Pange lingua disc won a Gramophone Re... more info