Early Music Review

The ensemble is essentially a recorder group: the playing is excellent and the embellishments are, as one would expect from the title of the disc and the group, effective. Some pieces are treated within the European tradition, but the Moorish influence is prominent. There is a sudden stylistic joint with track 9, when we move from the Codes Las Huelgas of c.1290 to Cabezon a quarter-millennium later; the programme then slips back through Morales to the Palace Songbook from the end of the 15th century. The disc is attractive, but when heard in too long stretches I want to quote Schoenberg's «O word, word, word that I lack» (even if I wouldn't understand them). The booklet interview with the group's leader is fascinating, though the possibility that starting with an ensemble and looking for music rather than vice versa might be cart-before-horse isn't raised. (is the use of a recorder quartet any more historically informed than using a string quartet?) I like the idea of a picture showing the different locations in which the musicians are placed. This is primarily a recording for recorder buffs to enjoy; others probably won't stay the course.