There have been many fine recordings drawing from the repertory of this royal Spanish songbook, but this one stands out as one of the Gilles Binchois' most convincing explorations of 15th-century polyphony. Many of the pieces are performed without instruments (now a well-established practice even in secular repertories), and the lone lute provides all the accompaniment one really needs.
The quality of the singing here really is first-rate, but with singers of this calibre that is hardly to be wondered at. What strikes one is the sobriety of this music - not for Spanish composers the showy displays of complex or dense poylphony. The one piece that has something like a musical programme (A los banos del amor, whose punning tenor gives the disc its title: 'I shall go alone') involves no virtuosity either in conception or realisation; nevertheless its beauty goes without saying. That sobriety provides the support for voices that are individually timbred, but that meld together admirably as an ensemble. As to the repertory, some of the best-known pieces are included (Al alva venid, for example, is hauntingly interpreted by Lena-Susanne Norin), as well as some whose closeness to sacred or pietistic concerns makes for a fascinating mixture of genres.
Whether listened to at one sitting or delved into in instalments, the impression is striking: no matter how you consider it, in this disc at least less is more.'