Reviewed by Steven Whitehead

This is a mid-price re-issue of a 2008 release on Symphonia and takes us on a spiritual pilgrimage around the Stations Of The Cross and also through examples of Spanish music of the Renaissance up to the time of Tomas Luis de Victoria (died 1611). The Stations Of The Cross are a popular feature of many Roman Catholic church buildings and take the pilgrim around the building while she or he contemplates the last journey of Christ around Jerusalem from his trial under Pilate to his burial in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea. In a church building the stations are usually pictures or bas-reliefs and on this CD they are pieces of music. Those of us who do not use the Stations Of The Cross in our worship may nevertheless find this CD a useful and inspirational aid to meditation although unless your Latin is better than mine you may need to join me in following the translations in the CD booklet. The best-known composer featured here is the aforementioned de Victoria. Others include Cristobal de Morales (c 1500-1553), Francisco Guerrero (1528-1599) and Juan Navarro (c 1550-1580). In addition to the 14 stations we have two prophetic visions and a statement from Jesus set to music by Julian Romero (born 1967). He has taken melodies from Gregorian chants to recall the timelessness of the idea of sacrifice in defence of high spiritual values and ideals, which, since ancient times, represent the only true hope for our survival. The music is consistently beautiful without over-powering the texts and the unaccompanied singing by the quintet Daltrocanto is exquisite. The playing time is brief (47 minutes) but the mid-range price makes this acceptable.

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