Classical CD: From Spain to Eternity

With composers as obscure as Alonso de Tejeda, there is little danger of too much doubling up in your CD library.

From Spain to Eternity (Archiv)

The Hilliard Ensemble, Transeamus (ECM)

Verdict: English vocal ensembles explore the glories of the Renaissance.

The six singers of Ensemble Plus Ultra made their name through the music of the Spanish Renaissance.

Two years ago, their 10-CD set of Tomas Luis de Victoria was an ambitious project, revealing the dark, lustrous palette that distinguishes the Spaniard from the smooth soundworld of the better-known Palestrina.

From Spain to Eternity finds the singers returning to the Iberian peninsula, with a collection of the sacred polyphony of El Greco's Toledo -- hence the artist's painting of the Spanish town, brutally cropped, on its cover.

Most of the 14 works are first recordings, many only recently discovered. And with composers as obscure as Alonso de Tejeda, there is little danger of too much doubling up in your CD library.

The scholarly will applaud Lobo's Missa Prudentes Virgines being preceded by the Francisco Guerrero motet that inspired it, but the power and passion of this extraordinary music has no need of learned commentary to spring into vibrant life.

Guerrero's short motet reveals the effectiveness of a small vocal group when it comes to clear lines and textures; but turn to the rich harmonies of Cristobal de Morales' Expandit Sion manus suas and one wonders what swarthy-toned Spanish voices may have made of those chords.

The four men of the Hilliard Ensemble sign off a 40-year career with their new ECM release, Transeamus.

Countertenor David James, the only singer remaining from the original line-up, describes the music chosen as needing no elaborate interpretation, but rather a focus on the fundamental basics of good tuning and ensemble.

Predictably, the quartet is matchless in both respects, in a line-up of old favourites, ranging from a resolute Ave Maria, Mater Dei by William Cornysh (c.1468-1523) to a lighter-than-air medieval carol, There is no rose.

The emphasis on the 15th century brings rhythmic flurries and lean harmonies that might seem archaic to some ears, but the ECM engineers give it an appropriately rich but cool ambience.

Traveller alert: if you are in London on December 20, you might check out the Hilliard Ensemble's last-ever concert at Wigmore Hall.