Topic: Recordings for lute and related instruments

[North Star]

A performance remarkable for its clarity of the voices and its sureness of the rhythms. The mood of the music is an agreeable blend of melodiousness and seriousness. The guitar is warm and in terms of timbre, it is very uniform in all the registers. The music by Domenico Rainer, which dates from the late c17, has only recently been unearthed in a manuscript by Lex Eisenhardt. Outstanding sound engineering.

The fellow seen here strumming the guitar seems pretty vexed about something - anyone know the painting (of which, I'm sure, this is only a part)?

The bass player can't keep a steady beat to save his life, clearly.

[JBS]

Google image search doesn't show the original (just Brilliant's CD cover) but it did suggest this as a similar image


The URL identifies this artist as "Theodoor Rombouts".

[Alek Hidell]

The URL identifies this artist as "Theodoor Rombouts".

Interesting, thanks. I did a Google Image search too and, like you, just got the album cover. I'd never heard of this Rombouts fellow but he appears to have been a Flemish painter of the early 17th century - a minor artist, apparently, but certainly not without talent. It appears he placed musicians in his paintings fairly often. But I haven't come across our angry guitarist in any of them.

But it's not a big deal, and I'm sending the thread off on a tangent. Carry on, all. 

[Mandryka]

Robert Ballard was a contemporary of Ennemond Gaultier. Richard Kolb plays an instrument which has a timbre which reminds me of the sort of lute which Louis Pernot favours for the style brisé : muscular with the sonority of each string possessing it's own characteristic sonority. This allows the contrapuntal nature of the music to come to the fore. He is much better recorded than Pernot, fortunately.

Ballard is one of these composers who sits midway between baroque complexity and renaissance charm -- I like that very much, it's easy to listen to, agreeable. Ballard's been pretty well ignored by musicians as far as I can see. That seems a shame, and it's a good thing IMO that this sad state of affairs is starting to be remedied.

Richard Kolb appears to be an experienced, mature  (I mean "of a certain age") and respected lutenist, at least that's what the interweb suggests. As far as I can see this is his only recording.

A new release, this month. Crowd funded.

This is worth checking out, for lovers of fine things in life.

[milk]

I like Conte, on baroque guitar playing Corbetta. But here on the Piccinini, I wonder if some might think there's too much reverberation. Joachim Held is a bit more "normal" in his soundscape. It can be hard to hear what a musician is doing with the music if it has too much reverberation. 


anyway, I really like Piccinini's music.

[milk]

Has anyone heard this? It's odd and interesting.

[Mandryka]

I like Conte, on baroque guitar playing Corbetta. But here on the Piccinini, I wonder if some might think there's too much reverberation. Joachim Held is a bit more "normal" in his soundscape. It can be hard to hear what a musician is doing with the music if it has too much reverberation. 


anyway, I really like Piccinini's music.

I think you go too far saying that you can’t hear what he’s doing, though I prefer a dryer, cooler, sound myself. For Piccinini maybe see what you think of Mónica Pustilnic. Just found it myself, so it’s not a recommendation.

[Mandryka]

Has anyone heard this? It's odd and interesting.

Which tracks does Gary Cooper play on?

On the first track, I thought it was pretty pointless because the organ just plays a bit of a supporting drone, but unexpectedly Gary Cooper takes the melody, and that made it more interesting. But just browsing through I haven’t found much else that seemed special, playing focussing on tunes rather than “inner life”, I could well have missed something.

[milk]

Which tracks does Gary Cooper play on?

On the first track, I thought it was pretty pointless because the organ just plays a bit of a supporting drone, but unexpectedly Gary Cooper takes the melody, and that made it more interesting. But just browsing through I haven’t found much else that seemed special, playing focussing on tunes rather than “inner life”, I could well have missed something.

I gave up on it. I'm always interested in odd pairings of instruments so that's what got my attention.
something like this

[San Antone]

Cross posting from the listening thread:

AMOURS AMOURS AMOURS
Lute Duos around 1500

Karl-Ernst Schröder, lute
Crawford Young, lute

I am enjoying this recording this morning.  Crawford Young is the highly regarded leader of two groups Ensemble Project Ars Nova (now inactive) and Ferrara Ensemble.

[XB-70 Valkyrie]

Here is a question for the cognoscenti:

To me, in general, the guitar seems very dry and boring harmonically compared to the lute, theorbo, and such earlier instruments, as well as the modern ukelele. All of these sound harmonically much richer, sweeter, and more melodious to my ears. Why is this? Is there much of a difference in tuning systems--or is it something else? (Outside of very few favorite guitarists such as Joe Pass, Johnny Smith, and the world of flamenco, I find the guitar--both acoustic and electric--to be a pretty big bore.)

[Que]

Cross posting from the listening thread:

I am enjoying this recording this morning.  Crawford Young is the highly regarded leader of two groups Ensemble Project Ars Nova (now inactive) and Ferrara Ensemble.

Oh, that looks very nice indeed. 

Q

[Mandryka]

Here is a question for the cognoscenti:

To me, in general, the guitar seems very dry and boring harmonically compared to the lute, theorbo, and such earlier instruments, as well as the modern ukelele. All of these sound harmonically much richer, sweeter, and more melodious to my ears. Why is this? Is there much of a difference in tuning systems--or is it something else? (Outside of very few favorite guitarists such as Joe Pass, Johnny Smith, and the world of flamenco, I find the guitar--both acoustic and electric--to be a pretty big bore.)

Maybe not all acoustic guitars are the same in this respect.

[milk]

Here is a question for the cognoscenti:

To me, in general, the guitar seems very dry and boring harmonically compared to the lute, theorbo, and such earlier instruments, as well as the modern ukelele. All of these sound harmonically much richer, sweeter, and more melodious to my ears. Why is this? Is there much of a difference in tuning systems--or is it something else? (Outside of very few favorite guitarists such as Joe Pass, Johnny Smith, and the world of flamenco, I find the guitar--both acoustic and electric--to be a pretty big bore.)

I like the Vihuela and baroque guitar though. I wonder if the innovation of the guitar and modern piano is achieving loudness, uniformity and more control? I could be wrong. This would have advantages. I like the roughness of baroque instruments.

[(: premont :)]

Maybe not all acoustic guitars are the same in this respect.

It is clearly something about the tuning. A fast skimming of this article reveals it as one of the most comprehensive I have seen:

https://scholarworks.iu.edu/dspace/bitstream/handle/2022/18424/Wead%2C%20Adam%20%28DM%20EMI%29.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

[XB-70 Valkyrie]

Thanks for the link; it looks like a great reference.

Possibly also the shape, surface area:volume ratio of the body (soundboard), length of neck relative to body, and the number of strings (some have sympathetic strings) also have an influence on this. I also find the viol family to be sweeter and richer in some respects than the modern violin family, although not to the same degree as that separating the modern guitar from its forbears.

[Mandryka]

I just post to alert lovers of Toyohiko Satoh to the series of three recordings he made with Walter van Hauwe, which I’ve only just discovered myself and which I think are very successful indeed.

I came across them while looking at the personnel on a lovely recording of Italian music, also very recommendable, not least for the extraordinary singer Lucia Meeuwsen. This

[milk]

this has been mentioned before:



I just love it. I love the way it makes me feel.

[Que]

this has been mentioned before:



I just love it. I love the way it makes me feel.

Not that it really matters, other than to avoid duplication, but it seems a reissue of this recording from 2002:

[Mandryka]

First, I don't understand the title of this recording -- Josquin & Antonello L'Abbraccio fra Nord e Mezzogiorno, Intavolature per liuto. (Josquin and Antonello. The embrace of the North and the South, tablatures for lute.) Who is Antonello in this context?

There is something very interesting about it though  -- the voice of Francesca Cassinari, known to me through her participation in Cantica Symphonica and indeed La Vexiana. It's a very powerful voice. The lutenist is a complete new name for me, and it's interesting to compare his intense style to the more lyrical and fluid Jacob Heringman, I am very keen on Heringman. Michele Cinquina, who was a student of Franco Pavan (and I think you can hear that in the sound he makes)  enjoys the resonances of the lute, he produces a sound which is rich in overtones, he uses expressive rubato in spades and he seems to enjoy playing the silences in the music. You get the picture.

Released in 2019, the middle of last year, I'd missed it completely.