The King's Singers, Andrew Lawrence-King, Harp Consort - Fire-Water: The Spirit Of Renaissance Spain (2000)

Other recent King's Singers' recordings on this label have reaffirmed the ensemble's credentials as compelling advocates of contemporary music. Here, only the most hardhearted of early music purists could fail to find the infectious cocktail of popular and religious Spanish music--largely 16th century--going to their heads, even if the King's Singers add the occasional theatrical embellishment. The music (much of it by "Anon") is organized into five categories, among them "fire" and "water" (with the alternative implications of ardor and alcohol). Of the named composers, none takes the ear more readily than Mateo Flecha the Elder. His La Bomba, one of several lengthy ensaladas (miniature music dramas), steals the show, with its comic tale of a bunch of sailors' impassioned but shallow prayer for deliverance from shipwreck. Elsewhere the moods range from pious to bitter-sweet melancholy--and just try to keep your feet still in villancicos such as Rodrigo Martinez. Those familiar, warm Harp Consort textures contribute markedly to the overall richness of sound. -- Andrew Green