AliaVox's Ministriles Reales is a sprawling, two-disc survey of secular music heard in the Spanish royal courts between the middle of the fifteenth century up to the end of the seventeenth. Led by Jordi Savall and performed by musicians drawn from both Hespèrion XX and XXI, it includes a number of pieces Savall has recorded before for AliaVox, but there doesn't seem to be any recycling of recorded performances already released. There are a great many anonymous pieces included, and while these rub shoulders with "name" ...
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AliaVox's Ministriles Reales is a sprawling, two-disc survey of secular music heard in the Spanish royal courts between the middle of the fifteenth century up to the end of the seventeenth. Led by Jordi Savall and performed by musicians drawn from both Hespèrion XX and XXI, it includes a number of pieces Savall has recorded before for AliaVox, but there doesn't seem to be any recycling of recorded performances already released. There are a great many anonymous pieces included, and while these rub shoulders with "name" composers, it is clearly the literature and instrumentation and that drives this project and not the personalities of any individual figures represented in the collection. The sound quality is superb, and the Super Audio CD format underscores just how good these recordings are; they are startlingly lifelike and detailed.From the outset, one might ask how this set could be anything but terrific. This is Savall's favorite repertoire and he maintains a close and harmonious relationship with...
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