Chanticleer is an all-male, all-adult choir (of 12 singers in the present recording), which means that Palestrina's soprano lines as well as the alto ones are taken by countertenors. The sound is on the whole warm rather than brilliant, at times rather dark, with an impressively firm bass. It is noticeable that in Chanticleer's selection from the Canticis Canticorum motets they choose none of those with divided soprano lines, only those with two alto or two tenor parts. Without female or boys' voices the sound is uncommonly unified. Tempos are quite fast, but the voices never seem taxed by passages of florid singing. Pitch is commendably precise most of the time. The acoustic is pleasing and the recording clean, but the words are not always easy to pick out. While this is the only recording currently available of Palestrina's masterly Requiem, it is not do justice to Chanticleer's typical vocal repertoire.