This beautifully performed, seraphic seqence, conjuring up a pleasant pre-Christmassy atmosphere, is also a sharp musical demonstration. Juxtaposing motets (some with organ) by the near-contemporary but seemingly opposed figures of Bruckner and Brahms, it allows one easily to grasp the difference in their a cappella styles: the one monumental, austere, yet translucent; the other richly interwoven. But overlap is notable, too, each composer striking out harmonically while looking carefully and raptly back to the preclassical sacred tradition. Highlights are Bruckner's Ecce sacerdos (evoking the grand manner of his symphonies) and Brahms's utterly melliflious Ave Maria.