Monteverdi Choir/John Eliot Gardiner Soli Deo Gloria SDG 710 ****

In 2004 John Eliot and his Monteverdi Choir set out on a pilgrimage from France, and, following a historic route, travelled over the Pyrenees and across Spain to Santiago da Compostela, performing in churches along the way. The recordings presented here, which were originally issued in 2005, are not taken from those performances, but were all made beforehand at the Church of St Alban the Martyr in Holborn. Never mind. The recorded sound is first-rate, and although the choice of music from the 14th to the 17th centuries may be only loosely connected with the pilgrimage's destination, it includes works as splendid as Guerrero's Duo Seraphim,as rare as the Crux fidelisby King John IV of Portugal, and as substantial as Lobo's Lamentationes Ieremiae Prophetae. Victoria, Cardoso and Rogier also feature in the sublimely calm procession of these performances. See url.ie/4oxv