Luis Dalvan

The Norwegian six-member a cappella group, Nordic Voices here presents the extraordinary polyphonic music of Tomas Luis de Victoria, a Spanish composer whose music has continued to move people for more than 400 years, crossing geographical, cultural, and even religious barriers. This surround-sound recording comes ten years after a "warm, consistent and moving" (BBC Music) album of Lamentations, which featured pieces by sixteenth-century composers, including Four Lessons by Victoria.

The Tallis Scholars under director Peter Phillips have cultivated a cool, Apollonian sound in a cappella Renaissance vocal music that can be awe-inspiringly beautiful in Flemish polyphony, and especially in the spare English repertory for which they are named. This small, mixed-gender adult choir might not seem an ideal group to take on the darker hues of Tomás Luís de Victoria, but the set of Lamentations of Jeremiah recorded here, music for Holy Week, is quite well suited to their talents. As Phillips points out in his elegant notes (in English, German, and French), Victoria's "Spanish" style was largely forged in Rome, and his somberness was in many ways a personal rather than a national characteristic.

Mexican superstar Luis Miguel followed up his immensely successful ballads collection, Romance, with the aptly titled Grammy-winner Segundo Romance (meaning second romance). The album, of course, is a first-rate collection of timeless Latin American standards. Miguel, one of Latin America's reigning superstars, has a wonderful, passionate voice, and the songs were exquisitely produced by the artist himself. The album opens with a romantic accordion leading into the first song, "El Dia Que Me Quieras," setting the tone for the rest of the set. Other highlights include his lush version of "La Media Vuelta," one of the album's biggest hits, complete with horns, strings, and Spanish guitars.

The works of Tomás Luis de Victoria are today an international paradigm of the Spanish Renaissance heritage. This master, born in Avila, rises like a standard-bearer from the huge spectrum of Spanish composers who carried the art of polyphony to its highest musical and liturgical significance.