IDAGIO | Masters of the Lute - Dowland, Kapsberger, Piccinini, de Visée & von Biber 723385242062

Featuring

Matthew Wadsworth
John Dowland
Francis Cutting
Giovanni Girolamo Kapsberger
Alessandro Piccinini
Robert de Visée

Jean-Baptiste Lully
Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber

Did you know?

1/7

Compositional Technique

Kapsberger, an eccentric theorbo player and composer, pioneered unique effects in his music, including 'strascini' (long virtuosic slurred passages) and 'campanella' (cross-string, harp-like figurations).

Recording & Production

This recording features an 8-course lute by Stephen Gottlieb (2002), a theorbo by Klaus Jacobsen (1990), and a 13-course baroque lute by Klaus Jacobsen (2004).

Composer's Artistic Vision

Dowland's music is famous for its passionate and almost obsessive melancholy, often seeking sleep and death as a release from earthly woes.

Performer Biography

Matthew Wadsworth is a founder member of Ricordo, a group known for its flamboyant performances of seventeenth-century music.

Composer Biography

John Dowland, one of England's greatest lutenists and composers, created the English lute-song by combining elements from various musical forms.

Performer Biography

Matthew Wadsworth, the lutenist on this album, won the London Student of the Year award in 1997 for his work on developing Braille lute tablature.

Instruments

The chitarrone, or theorbo, has a unique re-entrant tuning where the top two strings are an octave lower than expected, making contrapuntal playing impractical.