'Isabel I, Reina de Castilla' Anonymous Muy crueles bozes dan. Sanctus. Exultet. Turkish March. Toccata. Lavava y suspirava. CanciOn en ritmo Quddan de la Nuba Gribt Al Hussein de Marruecos Cornago Kyrie: Ayo visto lo mappamundi. Patres nostri peccaverunt Dufay Je ne vis onques la pareille Enzina Romances and Villancicos — Levanta, Pascual; Triste Espaiia sin ventura; El que rige y el regido Pavana, 'Nes que jams olvidaros' Escobar Missa pro defunctis — Requiem aeternam Francisco de la Torre La Spagna Narvâez Paseavase el rey moro Tordesillas Frariceses, por que 'rrazOn? Triana Dinos, madre del donsel Verardi Viva el gran Re Don Fernando Montserrat Figueras, Arianna Savall sops Andrew Lawrence-King hp La Capella Reial de Catalunya; Hesperion )0C1 / Jordi Savall Alia Vox AVSA9838 (78' • DDD/DSD • T/t)

Total authenticity is arguable but this music makes a programme full of verve

As the musicologist Rui Vieira Nery points out in his excellent notes to this album of music from the time of Isabel I, the 500th anniversary of whose death was commemorated last year, this CD could be seen 'as a sort of soundtrack.. .to a historical film dedicated to the fascinating figure of the Catholic Queen'.

Exactly. This sequence of pieces by composers of the latter part of the 15th century is presented in association with specific, and dated, events such as the taking of Granada or the death of Isabel's only son and heir, Prince Juan, which finds expression in music surviving from the period. Other occasions are rather less clearly fixed in song, at least in music that survives: the discovery of the New World, for example, or the expulsion of the unconverted Muslims in 1502. So this inevitably has to be an imaginative reconstruction; the danger is that these pieces will become fixed as part of a chronological timeline for which there is precious little evidence.

The musical interpretations, too, are highly imaginative and seem often to answer the needs of a visual or ambient context, with added fanfares or instrumental introductions and interjections; overall, the lavish combinations of instruments and voices, punctuated or defined by a colourful palette of percussive sounds, suggests a film score only too readily perhaps.

Actually, much of this repertory is already known and some of it has been previously recorded by Hesperion XXI. The works by Enzina, La Torre, Narvaez, Escobar and others are supplemented by a Sephardic ballad and a song apparently of Moroccan origin, the Middle Eastern and 'Moorish' elements being brought out not only in these specific items.

A good range of musical styles and idioms from the period is on offer here, though whether these wonderfully rich and sonorous interpretations — performances of great virtuosity, verve and expressiveness as required — would sound familiar to Isabel's ears remains an open question. Hesperion XXI certainly know how to make this music attractive and compelling today, and perhaps that's ultimately more important than musicological quibbles. Add this CD to your collection and, as they say, enjoy. Tess Knighton