The Aragonese composer Melchor Robledo is sufficiently obscure to need a few words of introduction. With dates of c. 1511-86, he's virtually an exact contemporary of the English composer Thomas Tallis; and just as Tallis occupies a chronological position roughly mid-way between Taverner and Byrd, so Robledo is one of the lesser-known figures between the great Spanish masters Cristobal de Morales on one hand and Tomas Luis da Victoria on the other. The comparison with Tallis doesn't end there: although Robledo seems to have been a reasonably prolific composer throughout his equally long career, his music too circulated not so much in printed editions as in hand-written copies, and for this reason many of his works have been lost. Unlike Tallis, however, Robledo has had to wait some four centuries for his revival. This record, made for the 1986 quartercentenary, aims to put him back on the map.
The pieces themselves are of good quality—Salve regina in particular is a fine crafted work. Less convincing, though, are the performances; for this is surely music that calls for choirs and a large building, instead, of which we're given solo voices in a revealingly dry acoustic. Had the interpretations been cast in a slightly more madrigalian mould, the result might have sustained interest a little better. Instead, there's an aloofness to these readings by The Scholars, and I found my attention turning away from the projection of the music and focusing more on the sound quality of the individual voices. Welcome as it is in certain respects, then, it has to be said that more beguiling recording exists of Spanish polyphony from the Golden Age, and this one is likely to appeal most to those enthusiasts who have a particular desire to make Robledo's acquaintance.'