Lute Music and Other Early Music: Stunning Recordings We Love

[MRC01]

Hello friends,

Today, I eventually noticed that I have not yet shared this wonderful performance and recording by Paul Berget entitled "SL Weiss on 11 Strings"; I download purchased in around 2006 at Magnatune site, and the album is fortunately still alive there and you can download-purchase. Really wonderful performance and stunning recording quality; highly recommended!
...

It's also on Quboz: https://play.qobuz.com/album/sbqfxdeiyu0jc
I'll give it a listen today.

 

[dualazmak]

Hello friends,

Today I realized that I have not yet shared this wonderful performance and recording by Paul Berget entitled "SL Weiss on 11 Strings". I bought it for download on the Magnatune site around 2006, but fortunately the album is still there and you can buy it for download. Really great performance and amazing recording quality. I highly recommend it!
...
Edit: If you would have serious difficulty in getting the intact album, please simply PM me.

Ref. https://www.bergetmusic.com/recordings.htm

I found it's also on YouTube;
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?app=desktop&list=OLAK5uy_kSgkqqsfh2r_MPj3xVHf6MES21QMUKnJQ
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCg8hZFNVZz1QUYWyP2oxLUw
and on Apple Music;

 

[Aynsley]

Hello friends,

Today, I eventually noticed that I have not yet shared this wonderful performance and recording by Paul Berget entitled "SL Weiss on 11 Strings"; I download purchased in around 2006 at Magnatune site, and the album is fortunately still alive there and you can download-purchase. Really wonderful performance and stunning recording quality; highly recommended!

Thank you for introducing yet another talented artist. I found a copy of the Weiss album on Apple Music, and listened to it with great pleasure. It's interesting that Berget chose to play the Weiss pieces on an 11-string classical guitar. I can't say I've ever heard of such an instrument.

I also noticed that Apple Music has some other albums by Berget, including two of Bach's music. That was an unexpected find, and I'm grateful to you for leading me in the right directon.

View attachment 328995

Edit: If you would have serious difficulty in getting the intact album, please simply PM me.

I used to belong to the Lute Society of England, and they loaned me a rather heavy lute during the years that I was in university. In those days there weren't many luthiers making instruments to the specifications of historical instruments. I was fortunate to meet one such craftsman on a Lute Society summer school. He was from Switzerland, and told me that he spent most of his spare time travelling the country looking for old barns, the older the better. If the barns were in poor condition, he would negotiate with the owners to purchase lengths of wood that he then used to make fine lutes. He told me that wood which had been weathered a hundred years or more produced the finest sound.

 

[dualazmak]

I also noticed that Apple Music has some other albums by Berget, including two of Bach's music. That was an unexpected find, and I'm grateful to you for leading me in the right directon.

Yes, you are quite welcome! So far, in my SSD library I have these three albums of Paul Berget.
All of these albums are really stunning, sublime and enjoyable. The sound quality is amazingly excellent all the way through.

Baroque Lute Duets: with Edward Martin, this was already shared in my very early post #3 here, also highly recommended!
http://magnatune.com/artists/albums/martin-duets/

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_lHr35BDTRITME4TOtleFTKhIpQEan29_c


The Siena Lute Manuscript:
http://magnatune.com/artists/albums/berget-sienalute/

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_k0Cw-AmZedZ0FoDqaLzDlJ2Jgc19obRHc


and,
SL Weiss on 11 Strings:
http://magnatune.com/artists/albums/berget-weiss11/

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?app=desktop&list=OLAK5uy_kSgkqqsfh2r_MPj3xVHf6MES21QMUKnJQ

 

[dualazmak]

Sylvius Leopold Weiss - Ciacona in G minor, Klaudyna Żołnierek (baroque lute)

 

[chord]

After that metronom-based Weiss, I recommend something from the opposit side:

 

[Robin L]

I'm shocked to find that I haven't contributed to this thread in years.

Got Tidal recently. That allowed me to hear Blandine Verlet's complete François Couperin series on Astree again. The used CDs go for silly money these days—Amazon has one for $200. Fortunately her recordings are well represented on streaming services:

Finally got around to Angela Hewitt. Didn't think it was really possible to play François Couperin on the modern piano, guess I was wrong:

 

[chord]

My favourite of B.V.:

Review here:

Intranquility False

 

[Barrelhouse Solly]

I got this album from the Musical Heritage Society in the early '80s. It was the only record club I ever belonged to. This was my start in early music.

 

[dualazmak]

Finally got around to Angela Hewitt. Didn't think it was really possible to play François Couperin on the modern piano, guess I was wrong:

Have you already listened to Iddo Bar-Shai (Iddo Bar-Shaï) plays François Couperin; released only in CD format MIR195 MIRARE, really wonderful recording quality, hall tones/reverberations, and of course amazing performance;

I touched on this amazing and impressive CD in my post #590 on my project thread where I wrote "Even though many famous piano teachers and professors say ""You should never play Francsois Couperin's Clavecin (Cembalo, Harpsichord) pieces with our modern piano!"", Iddo Bar-Shai plays Couperin so nicely; released in only CD format, but really wonderful recording and performance".

I especially like track-10 "La Misterieuse" which is also suitable for system check and tuning; on YouTube, you can hear it at 19:52 of this clip;

I highly recommend you purchasing the physical CD of really amazing performance and superb recording quality.

 

[chord]

I prefer Couperin on clavichord.
The new generation's approach is excellent way.
(B.V. was the teacher...)

 

[dualazmak]

I prefer Couperin on clavichord.
The new generation's approach is excellent way.
(B.V. was the teacher...)

Yes, I too have been much impressed by the amazing performances of Jean Rondeau and the superb excellency of the recordings.
I touched on his performance and the recording quality on my project thread;
- Excellent Recording Quality Music Albums/Tracks for Subjective (and Possibly Objective) Test/Check/Tuning of Multichannel Multi-Driver Multi-Way Multi-Amplifier Time-Aligned Active Stereo Audio System and Room Acoustics; at least a Portion and/or One Track being Analyzed by Color Spectrum of Adobe Audition in Common Parameters:
[Part-00] Introduction: #587
[Part-13] Harpsichord (Cembalo, Clavecin) Music: #645
Referring his album “VERTIGO; Rameau, Royer”, ERATO 0 825646 974580 (2015):

I also touched on this amazing performance of Jean Rondeau in my posts on these threads:
#691 on the thread "Classical ♫ Music only | Some you listen now or recently, some you love..."
#303 on the thread "Great recordings of classical music"
#017 on the thread "Music for Testing Treble (High Frequency) Sound" (my hosting thread)

 

[chord]

My reference Couperin record performed by 'older generation' is on a fantastic sounding Alpha:
(one of the best SQ what I have on clavichord)

 

[dualazmak]

Hello everyone.
This post is a follow-up of my above post #185 sharing;
Sylvius Leopold Weiss - Ciacona in G minor, Klaudyna Żołnierek (baroque lute)

I have been very much impressed by this nice performance of Klaudyna Żołnierek and also by my preferred typical "Weiss style" of deep melancholic melody lines. On YouTube, below the video clip, we can find this description.

I looked into, therefore, the twelve (12) CDs of Silvius Leopold Weiss's Complete London Manuscript for Lute performed by Canadian lutenist Michel Cardin which I shared in my very first post #1 on this thread. I actually found (re-discovered) the Chaconne in G-minor (4'52") in the final CD #12 performed in duet together with baroque flute by Christiane Laflamme.

Michel Cardin wrote nice "Program Notes" which we can read as follows.

Very fortunately, we can listen to this charming duet performance (lute and baroque flute) of Chaconne G-minor on YouTube;

 

[dualazmak]

I also very much like this lute duet performance by Anna Kowalska & Anton Birula (LUTEDUO); I assume this performance would be a kind of authentic reproduction of the original fantastic music piece included in Weiss's London Manuscript.
Sylvius Leopold Weiss - Chaconne (Ciacona) in G minor on YouTube

I will soon look for and purchase their CDs, or will purchase their high-res album digital download.
https://www.luteduo.com/

 

[dualazmak]

I do hope it would be allowed pasting my recent posts here and here also on this thread.

I have already shared/touched-on several times (including here on my project thread and here on another thread) about the stunning pipe organ performance and the amazingly excellent recording quality (down to 35 Hz zone) of "Recit de Tierce en taille / Grigny ND", by organist Jean Guillou, CD Dorian DOR-90134.

For long years, I have been much fascinated and impressed by the music written by Nicolas de Grigny 1672 - 1703 (wiki in English here, French wiki here), and yesterday I very much enjoyed this 2-CD set album performed by famous organist André Isoir and chant vocal ensembles, GRIGNY/MESSE/HYMNES 4509-91722-2, MUSIFRANCE.

Untimely/premature passing-away of de Grigny always reminds me the life of Henry Purcell and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart...