Apart from opera and lieder, there is one more vocal genre that is no less important and yet seems to lack any significant presence in our forum. What is your favourite lute song?
Here are my tips:
Thomas Campion - Fain Would I Wed
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75LBEu77ZxQ
John Dowland - In Darkness Let Me Dwell
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CBpRbbLVlPs
Francis Pilkington - Rest Sweet Nymphs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cntWsQbKMWM
Dowland: Flow my tears
If you are happy to consider the vihuela as a member of the lute family of instruments rather than a precursor to the guitar (this seems to be the current thinking) then the best purchase I have made in the area of song recently is this
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51R4tZkkGjL._SL500_AA240_.jpg)
On the Glossa label so the musicianship and production are superlative. I personally think Jose Miguel Moreno is the most skilled (and musically intelligent) of the slightly less than crowded field of historical plucked string instruments. His tone on this recording is exactly what I imagine a raindrop to sound like close up. Quite beautiful and highly recommended.