Santiago a Cappella

*

Self-indulgent and of decidedly mixed quality 2 Jan 2007

When first I saw this CD I was very excited by the prospect of such a high quality choir performing repertoire that I believe to be of exceptional beauty and brilliance. However, my reaction on hearing the disc was one of extreme disappointment, and subsequent listening has served only to confirm my initial impressions.

The music on this disc is all loosely connected with the shrine of St James at Santiago de Compostella in Spain, and brings together works spanning four centuries. The earliest pieces are taken from the Libre Vermell, which was compiled not for Santiago but for Montserrat, and date from the late twelfth century, through to the motet Crux Fidelis by Joao IX of Portugal. It must be mentioned that this latter work is very beautiful, but of doubtful provenance, and there are strong reasons to believe it to be a 19th century forgery.

That aside, the repertoire is unimpeachable. Sadly the same cannot be said of the singing. The choir is composed of excellent singers, but John Elliot Gardiner achieves very mixed results. At best the sound is brilliant, perfectly blended and very expressive, but at worst it is, to be blunt, rank. Tuning is frequently sour (listen to the opening of Ave Virgo Sanctissima) and at times the timbre of the voices is bitter and harsh. Most disappointing, however, are the tempi: Gardiner chooses very slow paces for several works, evidently aiming for an aetherial quality, but the effect is ultimately that the life is drained of the music. Though it be sacrilege to suggest this of such a fine musician, much of the conducting here seems self-indulgent.

In all, this disc falls far short of that which a listener has a right to expect. There are better recordings of all this repertoire elsewhere: for the stunning Lamentations by Alonso Lobo look to the King's College, London recording under David Trendell. The Libre Vermell is available in a very good Naxos recording, and the motets can be found on better discs by such groups as The Cardinalls Musick, Magnificat and the Choir of Westminster Cathedral.