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‘Jakob Lindberg was born in Djursholm in Sweden and developed his first passionate interest in music through the Beatles’ - programme note from Lindberg’s recital last night at The King of Hearts in Norwich.
The venue - the Tudor music room at the King of Hearts in Norwich. This centre for people and the arts is located in a restored medieval merchant’s house. The music room seats just 80, and its beamed ceiling and oak floor give it superb acoustics.
The instrument – Jakob Lindberg’s lute was made circa 1590 by the prolific luthier Sixtus Rauwolf who lived and worked in Augsburg, southern Germany. Dendrochronology confirms that the soundboard is original and dates it from 1418-1560, making this the oldest playable lute with its original soundboard. Lindberg bought the lute at a Sotheby’s auction in 1991, and it has been painstakingly restored including replacing of the 19th century neck.
The composers – Robert Ballard (c. 1575-1650), Gregory Huwet (c. 1550-c. 16160, Giovanni Girolamo Kapsberger (1580-1631), Albert Dlugoraj (1557- after 1619), Nicolas Vallet (c.1583- after 16420, Prince Mauritius, Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel (1572-1632), Robert Johnson (c.1583-1633), and John Dowland (1563-1626), plus of course Anon.
The encore – the Beatles.
Now read about more Dowland with contemporary connections, and it's not what you think.
Any copyrighted material on these pages is included for "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken links, missing images and other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk
Any CD with sleeve notes beginning like this gets my vote - '1536 was a very good year for vihuelists and lutenists in Europe. Luis Milan’s El Maestro (Valencia, Spain), Hans Newsidler’s Ein Newgeordent Kunst Lautenbuch (Nürnberg, Germany) and Francesco da Milano’s Intavolatura di Liuto (Naples, Milan, & Venice, Italy) were all published in 1536. This parallel outpouring of music created a wellspring of repertoire for aristocrats, merchants, students, and members of the mobile elite'.
This Gagliano Recordings CD takes its title from the year 1536, and features Portland based Jeffrey Ashton (right) playing the three works for vihuela and lute from that very good year. His wonderful recital flies in the face of current fashions. Look elsewhere for improvisation and realisation, but don’t expect authentic instruments either, because Ashton transcribes the music, and follows the example of Glenn Gould and many others by playing early music on a modern instrument, in this case a guitar by Jeffrey Elliott.
This is important music, lovingly transcribed, beautifully played, and with informative sleeve notes by the performer. My only minor niggle is that the sound from the Billy Oskay Studios in Portland, Oregon is a touch close and dry, this music really needs more air and reverberation. But that is a small complaint, and if you follow the previous link you will see that the view from the studio probably compensated for the dry acoustics.
This excellent disc from a small independent label sums up the conundrum of today’s market. You don’t need a rock star vocalist or an improvising percussionist to make a beautiful early music CD. But you do need them to sell it to today’s aristocrats, merchants, students, and members of the mobile elite.
Now follow this link for downloads of more beautiful guitar music
1536 is on the Gagliano Recordings label – GR536. I bought my copy from Amazon.com, it is not available in record stores in Europe. Any copyrighted material on these pages is included for "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken links, missing images and other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk
