Alla Francesca are a newly formed group of singers and instrumentalists, dedicated to the study and performance of early music between the eleventh and fifteenth centuries. They are joined here by three trebles from the junior choir of Notre-Dame de Paris. I listened to them with particular interest and curiosity, having myself only recently returned from that other famous pilgrimage, to Santiago de Compostela: along the camino we had sung at least three of the songs recorded here. Alla Francesca are brisk and unsophisticated in their approach: they aim at reproducing the sound of the medieval pilgrimage to Montserrat; they have taken advice on language and pronunciation. Some rough edges there are, but also some strong and attractive vocal lines, from Brigitte Lesne in particular. The three boys perform on their own the two canons, O virgo splendens and Laudemus virginem/Splendens ceptigera, with even tone and aplomb.
The ten songs in the Llibre vermell were recorded a few years ago by the New London Consort. Theirs was a more polished performance, bursting with verve, energy, wit, but also tenderness. Catherine Bott was unsurpassed, notably in Mariam matrem virginem. Both groups used reconstructed medieval instruments – many of them the same as those held so lovingly in the hands of the four-and-twenty Elders, carved in stone on practically every church and cathedral along the pilgrim routes. I thought these instruments, especially in the quieter songs, were introduced with more delicacy and sensitivity by the New London Consort. This group also managed to achieve greater variety in their handling of the multiple repetitions, with no hint of contrivance.'