This new recording of songs and vihuela music from sixteenth-century Spain by the ensemble La Romanesca comes from the excellent Glossa label. Many of the pieces have been recorded at least once, if not dozens of times before, but this CD will take pride of place among my recordings of this repertory. The group perform with true fantasia but without any of the mannerisms – the excesses and the understatements – of many of their predecessors and rivals: they seem to hit it just right. They have mostly selected songs with a strong popular flavour – precisely those songs that have attracted most attention because they are simply so attractive – but their realizations are restrained in terms of instrumental accompaniment (plucked strings, viol and a smattering of percussion), but full of musical vitality – in other words, the emphasis is, justly, on the music and not the ‘orchestrated’ arrangement of it.
The players, led by Jose Miguel Moreno, are brilliant, and the singer, the soprano Marta Almajano, shines as much in this repertory as she does in the baroque music she has recorded with both this group and Al Ayre Espanol. She brings out perfectly the lyricism inherent in the popular-inspired court song tradition – take, for example, Vasquez’s lovely De los alamos vengo: these songs demand an elusive blend of sophistication and simplicity. The instrumentalists make the most of the virtuoso element already making itself felt in the works of the vihuelists and Ortiz’s recercadas. It’s good to have a ‘straight’ version of Encina’s Mas vale trocar, which is often treated in an upbeat manner at odds with the text. The same applies to Vasquez’s Con que la lavare, although I find this just a touch too slow. Overall, and above all, it is purely a pleasurable experience to listen to this disc. I have already had it on in almost every room in the house (the joys of a portable CD player) as well as in the car; take it with you wherever you go, and especially to that desert island.'