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Editorial Reviews

Helios' The Voice in the Garden, featuring Gothic Voices under Christopher Page and originally released on Hyperion, comes from a time when the early music revival movement was at its peak of popularity and is nevertheless outstanding even within that context. Subtitled "Spanish Songs and Motets, 1480-1550," this disc presents a mixed recital of popular songs, Latin religious pieces, and instrumental solos that provides the panoramic view of middle-renaissance Spanish culture. Page and his group have studied the accents of the highly colloquial Spanish language of this era and deliver the music in a slightly casual and slangy way, not employing the usual purity of tone heard in their realizations of English and French music, though this approach is utilized on a couple of the Latin sacred pieces heard here. The instrumental pieces, taken from intabulations, are beautifully played by Christopher Wilson on vihuela and Andrew Lawrence-King. These come through much quieter than the vocal pieces and may trigger the volume jockey in some, but the disc as a whole is actually comfortably balanced and to best enjoy it one should leave the volume knob in one place.

In The Voice in the Garden, Gothic Voices are looking at a time and place in Spanish music that is little understood as a unit; while the instrumental music -- mainly by Luys Milan and Luys de Narváez -- is known to some extent through their adaptation by classical guitarist and widespread use among lutenists, the vocal music, much of it popular in orientation, is hardly known to anyone. In focusing in this area, Gothic Voices have discovered that the prevalent composer in Spain during this time was Francisco de Peñalosa, and he is the most represented name here, although some listeners deep into the universe of Renaissance music might know the name of Juan del Encina. Overall, both the style and sound of this music is so remote and alien to even seasoned medievalists that it would take some disciplined listening to divine the differences between the various composers represented, apart from the obvious alternations between vocal and instrumental pieces. So while there may be a learning curve ahead, Gothic Voices are great teachers, and if you are in need of a vehicle to explore Spanish music of the mid-Renaissance period, then Helios' The Voice in the Garden is like having a Rolls Royce to drive around. Uncle Dave Lewis, All Music Guide

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