Search - Hesperion XX, Jordi Savall :: Pop Spanish Music 1200-1700

Disparate Sampler in Superb Sound Quality

Leslie Richford | Selsingen, Lower Saxony | 06/12/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Virgin Classics began its series of reissues of Jordi Savall?s 1970?s EMI recordings in 1994 with this sampler containing tracks originally released between 1976 and 1978 on at least three LPs. Samplers of this kind are seldom ideal, and the current one suffers from its disparateness, neatly covered over by the vague title ?popular Spanish music 1200 ? 1700?; in fact, the first ten tracks are from the 16th and 17th centuries (Cabanilles lived on into the 18th), whereas tracks 11 and 12 contain melodies by French troubadours who flourished towards the end of the 12th century ? the authoress of the rather skimpy inlay text has to get round this by pointing out that Savall performs the pieces ?in Spanish style?, which is true enough but still something of a lame excuse for including these pieces in a collection of supposedly Spanish pieces. From track 13 onwards, the CD leaps back into the 15th and 16th centuries.



But having said all that, I should nevertheless add that the performances of all these pieces are superbly done, absolutely riveting, with a young and vigorous Montserrat Figueras providing revelatory vocals and the rest of this famous troupe not willing to be outdone. The CD did the trick for me, at any rate, and I went on to buy several of the Savall re-releases which Virgin went on to make available: ?El Barroco Espanol?, ?Cansos de Trobairitz?, ?Llibre Vermell de Montserrat? and Bach?s suites for viola da gamba and harpsichord ? all CDs which take pride of place in my collection, although the ?Llibre Vermell? is to my mind not quite as captivating as the others.



If you are wondering about the sound, I can only add that these digitally re-mastered analogue recordings are absolutely brilliant and put many an original digital recording a long way behind them ? I have seldom heard such crisp, vital, present recordings.

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