Customer Reviews

The Pilgrimage to Santiago

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I bought this when it first came out. Pickett does a great job in bringing to life a pilgrimage to Santiago d' Campo Stella. The tracks run the gambit from soft and lyrical to raucous and festive. Pickett makes good use of the totality of early music instrumentation and voice.

A 2-CD reissued set from Philip Pickett and the New London Consort, these selections of 13th- and 14-century devotional songs are what would have supported pilgrims in their trek across Europe to southern France into Galicia, Spain, to Santiago de Compostela and the shrine the faithful believed to contain the remains of Saint James. Their path would include many churches and chapels, serving as hostels, where songs and masses would help overcome their hardships and challenges of disease, hunger, bandits, and doubt. This is a grand album in both scope and performance. A full instrumental consort and 14 singers, eight of whom soloists, take us on the sonic journey. The recording of 1989 was made in Temple Church, London, and the L'Oiseau-Lyre (Decca) engineers took full advantage of the fine acoustics. The two CDs focus on regional songs, the first of Navarre and Castile, the second of León and Galicia. Lyrics with translation are included in the notes. I particulary enjoyed the clarity and resonance of the hand bells, the hurdy-gurdy drone, the beautiful voices in harmony and polyphony, and angelic solo singers. The long instrumental introduction to 4 Planctus (disk 1), but one example, is an arresting meditation with glissandos; of 14 minutes, the track leaves one floating. Nearly everything the Consort has issued has been special, and this album is both spiritual and superb in its arrangements of Early Music.