Lute Music and Other Early Music: Stunning Recordings We Love

[dualazmak]

This transfer to YouTube is much more recent, don't know if I'm noticing a difference or anticipating a difference, but I make no claims of having golden ears.

Lovely music, playing, and sound.

Thank you, Robin L, for the link to newer YouTube clip! I found the SQ is almost identical to the actual CD...

 

[Robin L]

Thank you, Robin L, for the link to newer YouTube clip! I found the SQ is almost identical the actual CD...

Unless I'm terribly mistaken, digital technology had major improvements during the previous decade. This would apply to everything in the digital audio chain, including the means to upload sound files to YouTube.

David Tayler has been mentioned several times already, note that he is responsible for much of the technical work on the Voices of Music YouTube videos. I find sound and image on these videos to be exemplary:

 

[dualazmak]

This collection of French Baroque music for lute is one of my favorites. Great engineering, great playing:

Also [originally] a great Album cover:

View attachment 119686

Thank you, Robin L...

I fortunately could find and order the CD, Astree E8880, at Amazon Japan. I do not fully understand the sense of the great(?) cover art, though...

 

[Robin L]

Thank you, Robin L...

I fortunately could find and order the CD, Astree E8880, at Amazon Japan. I do not fully understand the sense of the great(?) cover art, though...

Guess it all depends on how one reacts to such things. Beside what ever voyeuristic jollies one might get from the image [voyeuristic jollies being very much in the spirit of the French Baroque], the matte surfaces, choice of color for fonts, lack of a jewel case, all make for a much more artistic package than one usually finds with CDs.

 

[dualazmak]

Unless I'm terribly mistaken, digital technology had major improvements during the previous decade. This would apply to everything in the digital audio chain, including the means to upload sound files to YouTube.

David Tayler has been mentioned several times already, note that he is responsible for much of the technical work on the Voices of Music YouTube videos. I find sound and image on these videos to be exemplary:

I fully agree with you. The YouTube video clips of "Voices of Music" are always really wonderful including this one, I was one of the audiences in this really fantastic charming concert; I had a lot of tears in my eyes. I have several LPs and CDs of Purcell's "Dido and Aeneas", and this YouTube video is now absolutely my best choice;

 

[dualazmak]

Hello Robin L and friends,

This is a follow-up of our communication in post #40, post #43 and post #44 regarding the CD "Rolf Lislevand (lutenist): La Belle Homicide - Manuscript Barbe: NAIVE - ASTREE E8880".

Today, the actual CD arrived, and I am deeply impressed by not only the fantastic profound music, wonderful performance, superb recording sound quality but also by the unique design (including the unique cover photo) and the content of the booklet having the very nice "Letter from a Lutenist".

All of the tracks are really amazingly beautiful and inspiring, and I especially love track-11 "La Psyche (Jacques Gallot)", track-15 "La Malassise (Charles Mouton)" and track-16 "La Lucerce (Jacques Gallot)"; I cannot listen to these tracks without tears in my eyes, I cannot find words to describe the profound beauty and melancholy...

I fully agree and understand Robin L's fascination on this wonderful CD.

Now, therefore, let me share the details of the CD including the English text of the "Letter from a Lutenist" as follows;

As usual, I ripped the CD into bit-perfect AIFF format with edited tag info;

I am very happy that I could find and confirm again that my recently completed multichannel multi-amplifier system (of high S/N and low distortion) very well fits for these wonderful recordings of lute music...

I highly recommend you to get the original CD even though we can hear all the tracks in this YouTube clip as Robin L kindly shared;

 

[dualazmak]

An Interlude/Intermezzo on the Thread:

Hello Robin L and friends,

The title of the CD "Rolf Lislevand (lutenist): La Belle Homicide - Manuscript Barbe: NAIVE - ASTREE E8880" also reminds me the life and art of Carlo Gesualdo and Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio.

Throughout the long history of music, Gesualdo is/was an impregnable solitude high summit and/or the deepest darkest cul-de-sac; no such inspiring and impressive music before and after him.

I have many LPs and CDs of the really unique music written by Gesualdo, of course including the album "Tenebre" performed by The Hilliard Ensemble;
https://www.amazon.com/Gesualdo-Ten...words=Gesualdo+hilliard&qid=1616755251&sr=8-1

as well as the complete recordings of his Six Books of Madrigals, and so on.

The stunning recordings of the unique music by Gesualdo, however, are out of the scope of this thread, though...
(I just hesitate, therefore, to paste many impressive YouTube video links of music by Gesualdo in this thread.)

I have acctually considerd starting a new thread entitled "Music by Calro Gesualdo: Stunning Recordings Inspiring Us", but abandoned since it should not be suitable/acceptable in this ASR Forum. I may start that thread in other appropriate forum on early music.

 

[Robin L]

An Interlude/Intermezzo on the Thread:

Hello Robin L and friends,

The title of the CD "Rolf Lislevand (lutenist): La Belle Homicide - Manuscript Barbe: NAIVE - ASTREE E8880" also reminds me the life and art of Carlo Gesualdo and Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio.

Throughout the long history of music, Gesualdo is/was an impregnable solitude high summit and/or the deepest darkest cul-de-sac; no such inspiring and impressive music before and after him.

I have many LPs and CDs of the really unique music written by Gesualdo, of course including the album "Tenebre" performed by The Hilliard Ensemble;
https://www.amazon.com/Gesualdo-Ten...words=Gesualdo+hilliard&qid=1616755251&sr=8-1

as well as the complete recordings of his Six Books of Madrigals, and so on.

The stunning recordings of the unique music by Gesualdo, however, are out of the scope of this thread, though...
(I just hesitate, therefore, to paste many impressive YouTube video links of music by Gesualdo in this thread.)

I have acctually considerd starting a new thread entitled "Music by Calro Gesualdo: Stunning Recordings Inspiring Us", but abandoned since it should not be suitable/acceptable in this ASR Forum. I may start that thread in other appropriate forum on early music.

I can't think of any reason to not have a thread that includes the music of Gesualdo. However, I would fold that into a thread of Renaissance Sacred Choral Music: as regards music, performance and sonics, it's a very rich vein to mine. A regards suitability there's death metal threads here, a little domestic homicide shouldn't be too far a bridge to cross.

One more thing. I'd point to Hildegarde von Bingen as the first summit in western music. Though her works are clearly too early for Renaissance Sacred Choral, it is a quantum leap compared to what came before.

 

[MRC01]

Thanks everyone for the suggestions here, some of these recordings are new to me which will keep me busy for a while.
Here are a few that I have been enjoying lately:
https://play.primephonic.com/album/00028948117192
https://play.primephonic.com/album/3149020941959
https://play.primephonic.com/album/886446000022
https://signumrecords.com/product/john-dowland-first-booke-of-songes-or-ayres/SIGCD553/

 

[gene_stl]

I can't think of any reason to not have a thread that includes the music of Gesualdo. However, I would fold that into a thread of Renaissance Sacred Choral Music: as regards music, performance and sonics, it's a very rich vein to mine. A regards suitability there's death metal threads here, a little domestic homicide shouldn't be to far a bridge to cross.

One more thing. I'd point to Hildegarde von Bingen as the first summit in western music. Though her works are clearly too early for Renaissance Sacred Choral, it is a quantum leap compared to what came before.

I was going through the classical section at Half Price Books records and tapes and came across about eight or nine CDs of Gesualdo, whom I had never heard of. So I took a flyer on them. I have not had the chance to listen to them yet but as a result of the above post am looking forward to hearing them.

 

[MRC01]

As for Gesualdo, I really enjoy his madrigals, particularly these performances / recordings by Delitiae Musicae:
https://play.primephonic.com/album/747313213771
I linked book 4 there as it's one of my favorites. They did books 1 through 6.

 

[gene_stl]

The set I found was from Rivo Alto and is a set of six although missing volume one. redbook cd also a single CD from another label.

 

[MRC01]

We should never forget about Jacob Lindberg's dedication in lute music recorded mainly by BIS label including
BIS-CD-587/588 BIS: Bach Lute Music;

I found this on Primephonic: https://play.primephonic.com/album/7318597227247
They also have the booklet / liner notes. I found this on page 35, near the end (italic emphasis in original):
---
The listener is kindly requested to listen at a reduced volume level when playing lute recordings. Otherwise all the nuances disappear and the resulting timbre is most incorrect.

 

[Robin L]

I found this on Primephonic: https://play.primephonic.com/album/7318597227247
They also have the booklet / liner notes. I found this on page 35, near the end (italic emphasis in original):
---
The listener is kindly requested to listen at a reduced volume level when playing lute recordings. Otherwise all the nuances disappear and the resulting timbre is most incorrect.

Used to have that set as it dribbled out, one CD at a time. Recall that the gear used for this recording was very similar to what I was using at the time. Dryish sound and playing, I'm sure Dowland would appreciate this artist's emotional reserve.

Here's some fat, coloristic Dowland:

 

[Robin L]

If it wasn't for Julian Bream, I wouldn't be interested in Dowland. I've been told [by a lute player] that Bream's instrument was designed as something of a halfway house between a lute and a guitar, much as Landowska's Pleyel had modified a "harpsichord" into an altogether louder instrument. The volume of a lute is just about right for a big living room, anything bigger and it's tone is swallowed by environmental noise. Bream had a real feeling for the music, was a fine evangelist for Dowland, though his articulation and tone quality indicate he's more of a guitar player than a lutist:

 

[dualazmak]

Hello friends, thank you all for participation and sharing nice info...

As for just Madrigals of Gesualdo, I have these;

 

[dualazmak]

Gesualdo,,, these are also really wonderful and inspiring;

The 2CD set of Hilliard Ensemble POCJ-1065/6 also contains my beloved "Benedictus" and "Miserere" in the 2nd disk, highly recommended.

 

[dualazmak]

...
One more thing. I'd point to Hildegarde von Bingen as the first summit in western music. Though her works are clearly too early for Renaissance Sacred Choral, it is a quantum leap compared to what came before.

Hello Robin L,

I really appreciate your wonderful suggestion!

So far, quite regretfully, I know nothing about Hildegarde von Bingen. I will soon try to know her and her music; it should wonderfully enlarge my perspectives in early music.

 

[gene_stl]

This Turnabout LP was released in about 1978 , the year he passed away at only 41. Back in the days when LPs were about all there was.

 

[Robin L]

Hello Robin L,

I really appreciate your wonderful suggestion!

So far, quite regretfully, I know nothing about Hildegarde von Bingen. I will soon try to know her and her music; it should wonderfully enlarge my perspectives in early music.

This is as good a place to start as any. Sequentia was one of the first performing ensembles to record a large body of Hildegard von Bingen's music:
The cover takes a bit of the visual art of HvB, soups it up like a card for a rave. Hildegard's visions were transcribed by nuns in her abbey into paintings reminiscent of religious from other cultures, with a strong and repeated use of mandalas: