Virgin Classics began its series of reissues of Jordi Savall’s 1970’s EMI recordings in 1994 with this sampler containing tracks originally released between 1976 and 1978 on at least three LPs. Samplers of this kind are seldom ideal, and the current one suffers from its disparateness, neatly covered over by the vague title “popular Spanish music 1200 ? 1700”; in fact, the first ten tracks are from the 16th and 17th centuries (Cabanilles lived on into the 18th), whereas tracks 11 and 12 contain melodies by French troubadours who flourished towards the end of the 12th century ? the authoress of the rather skimpy inlay text has to get round this by pointing out that Savall performs the pieces “in Spanish style”, which is true enough but still something of a lame excuse for including these pieces in a collection of supposedly Spanish pieces. From track 13 onwards, the CD leaps back into the 15th and 16th centuries.