International Record Review: outstanding.
15 years ago lutenist Jakob Lindberg bought a very special instrument – one of the four extant lutes by Sixtus Rauwolf, built c. 1590. The restoration of the lute took several years and was rather painstaking: for some repairs they even used ancient wood from the library in the Palazzo Pitti in Florence! Considering the great age of the instrument it was nevertheless in good shape and is now probably the only one in the world that, retaining its original soundboard, is in playable condition. This unique feature Lindberg has wanted to celebrate by recording music suitable for the instrument. Once upon a time, probably in 1715, this lute was equipped with a new neck allowing for a greater number of courses. This makes it perfect for the lute works of Silvius Leopold Weiss (1687-1750), famous among his contemporaries as the finest lutenist of his generation. (There is some reason to believe that Bach composed a couple of his works for solo lute after having met Weiss in 1739.) Weiss was also the most prolific of all lute composers: some 600 pieces have survived, which may amount to half of his entire production for the instrument. Most of the pieces on this disc are early works, grouped in suites – or Sonatas as Weiss himself termed them – by the composer himself or, in some cases, by Jakob Lindberg. Included are some of Weiss’s best-known works, e.g. the Fantasie in C minor as well as one of his rare fugues for lute.
Some press voices:
"Jakob Lindberg spielt einmal mehr mit einer Virtuosität, die nicht als Selbstzweck erscheint, sondern die Werke Weissens ins richtige interpretatorische Licht rückt. Wie selbstverständlich (manchmal auch selbstvergessen) perlen die Läufe vor sich hin, ehe in den Tanzsätzen Schwung, Bewegung und rhythmischer Drive hinzu kommt." Klassik.com 04/2006
Extra material for download
