This album is a record of a concert performed in honour of Holy Roman Emperor Charles the Fifth (1500 - 1558), who held many other titles as well, of course, including those of Charles I of Spain and of Austria, but is not to be confused with Charles V of France (1338 - 1380). Our Holy Charles V made holy war all his life all over Western Europe and upon his abdication 25 October 1556 swore in church that he had ‘never willingly trampled on the rights of any man’ and, had he inadvertently done so, he begged forgiveness. I guess that makes it all better. What a pity Hitler never lived to apologise; think of how very much nicer everything would be if he had.

But being dead 450 years can make a saint out of any man, and here we are celebrating Charles’ "vision" with all his favourite music. A specific selection is somehow correlated with each event in the Emperor’s life and presented on the disk in chronological order of these events, not of their composition.

The two performing groups combined total 30 musicians, but they do not all perform all the time; various works are performed by smaller groups of performers which change each time, so the sound changes from track to track, as does the type of music. Some tracks are songs, some dances, some military pieces. Those of us who listen too lots of renaissance music will recognise some of this music as familiar and will also recognise that we’ve not often, if ever, heard it performed as well as it is here.

So, with so many renaissance music disks on the market why should you buy this one especially? Three qualities recommend it: 1) the enthusiasm of the performers, which is measured and carefully directed, not just high energy where this might be inappropriate, but also deep reverence, mystery, and nostalgic affect. 2) the virtuosity of the performers, outstanding even in this crowded field, which produces a gorgeous, carefully balanced, and highly varied musical sound, and 3) the SACD format recorded sound which results in a disk of stunning impact.

Also the notes, 7 pages in English out of a total of 76, concentrate on Carlos V and hardly mention the music. Texts are included and presented in major languages, including Latin in some cases, but there are no song texts in Catalá or Nederlands. The unusually attractive and functional packaging would also make this disk a fine gift.

A refreshing innovation in the packaging of this disk is that there are no draconian warning messages or threats of prison terms or lawsuits on the subject of "piracy," but there is something much more effective and to the point: pictures of all the artists looking you right in the eye and smiling. Who could possibly condone stealing from people you feel you know and have just given you a beautiful concert? Or perhaps the legal department takes comfort that SACDs are "copyproof." Yeah, right, like the Titanic was unsinkable.

Paul Shoemaker

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