The idea of a CD reflecting the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela is not in itself original, but this one does offer something new. Whereas the New London Consort (L’Oiseau-Lyre, 7/92) concentrated on the medieval period, and the Monteverdi Choir (SDG, 6/05) edged into the Renaissance, Jean Tubéry and Ensemble La Fenice have taken inspiration from a decorative map of 1648 showing the routes from France into northern Spain; perhaps the first ever baroque take on the subject. That map is reproduced in the booklet, though inevitably too small to make much of, and getting one’s head round the musicological background is likewise a tough task. But this in any case is not a historical reconstruction; as Tubéry tells us “the spiritual path travelled is of much more importance than the journey itself”.

The answer, then, is to surrender to the various sounds paraded before us as representative of what might have been heard by a pilgrim in the mid-17th century, ranging from chant to popular songs (often with sacred texts) and from dances to sophisticated ensemble pieces. Much of it is either by the anonymous or the obscure, though names such as Du Caurroy, Moulinié, Salaverde and Falconieri also appear. How much this unusual mix genuinely evokes the camino itself is debatable, though it does follow the route (church bells marking each change of location) and the ear could hardly fail to recognise the move from France to Spain. Moreover, the performances by six multi-tasking musicians have an intimacy and tender beauty that ought to inspire a suitably decorous state of mind in the listener, led by Tubéry’s eloquent cornett and Arianna Savall’s small-voiced but pleasingly guileless singing. No Chaucerian bawdiness here; this disc is both parfit and gentil.