Daniel Batchelar

Antony Rooley writes: ‘Since 1963 I had been spending many hours in the British Library studying the sixteenth-century English lute manuscripts … what a unique collection! The “Jane Pickering Lute Book”, “The John Sturt Lute Book”, “The Mynshall Lute Book” – all collections of one individual’s personal choice of repertoire, each with unique information on fingering, ornamentation, taste and style.

‘I was invited by Decca to make a solo lute recital – and as no one in the company knew the repertoire, I was left alone to finalize my choice. How to choose from such wonderfully obscure collections from 400 years ago?

‘Why did I choose John Cozens’ Lute Book (residing in Cambridge University Library) from the rest? Well, I admired his taste! I admired his ornamentation! I admired his clarity! It is a wonderful collection of the very best Elizabethan/Jacobean lute music – and it was about the right length for an LP. (Although in the end I made a selection rather than the complete manuscript).

‘I can only say, 35 years on, I was a very lucky young man and I think I made the wisest choice – it is still a collection of very beautiful music!’

This delicious LP makes its first appearance on CD on this Decca Eloquence reissue.

“This is an anthology of the best kind … Rooley’s playing is thoughtful and gentle … he has a fine sense of the long-range spread of a piece and the playing has a pleasing combination of control and relaxation.” Gramophone

Mysterious doodles on a 17th-century manuscript provided Liz Kenny with the inspiration for this fascinating disc. The ownership of the ML Lutebook has been attributed to a number of court musicians from its discovery in 1912, but it was the name ‘Margaret’ occasionally scrawled throughout the copy which caught the contemporary performer’s imagination. Kenny writes that ‘this chimed with the train of thought that was beginning to focus on what and who these books were compiled for, rather than on any single composer who wrote them, and put it in line with other books belonging to Jane Pickeringe and Margaret Board (lute), Elizabeth Rogers (virginals), and Lady Ann Blount (singing), where a remarkable level of virtuosity was associated with private performance by women. There are plenty of great men and great tunes within its covers but ‘Margaret’ has remained in my mind over the years that I’ve been fascinated by the book’. The Flying Horse (track 24) is an anonymous piece that seems to sum up the spirit of the book, a ground bass spiced up with an exotic chord of A flat and an incitement to improvise. Works by Dowland, Johnson, Bacheler, Sturt and others summon up an exhilarating musical world influenced by the court, the theatre and the cries of the street, and where mansucripts, passed from hand to hand, became palimpsests of the perfomer’s own art.

Liz Kenny, arguably the greatest lutenist of today, performs this entrancing collection with an aplomb and flair that seems to directly channel those virtuoso performers who were handed the music with the ink still wet on the page.

Matthew Wadsworth: I used to spend hours in the basement of the library, listening to recordings of one of my great idols, Julian Bream – deciding which piece to write out and learn next. Since then, it has always been a burning ambition of mine to one day record the Varietie of Lute Lessons, and some 15 years after my initial forays into this stunning repertoire, it felt right to finally commit the pieces to disc.My choice of pieces for this recording was largely instinctive. It wasn’t possible to record all 42 pieces, so I chose the ones which spoke to me the most at the time, with a view to representing all styles and genres of the book.

Matthew Wadsworth, lutenist, is in great demand as a soloist, continuo player and chamber musician. He has appeared at major festivals in the UK, Europe and North America and can frequently be heard on radio, both in live performance and on disc.Wadsworth was recently made an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music and was nominated by The Independent as a “Rising Star for 2005”.

Born in the final years of the reign of Elizabeth 1, Henry Lawes (1602-1645) belonged to the generation which succeeded the great composers of the English Renaissance and sought to impart a new Italian-inspired musical style.

In the troubled times of 17th century England Lawes was, in his lifetime, acknowledged as one of the finest composers for the voice. With extended vocal ranges, expressive melodic formulas, vibrant dissonances and the high poetic quality of his texts, Lawes is a subtle painter of the melancholy of his age, situated between John Dowland and Henry Purcell.

Includes previously-released CDs:

• Kapsberger: Il Tedesco della Tiorba
• Lord Herbert of Cherbury's Lute Book
• John Dowland: Complete Lute Works, Vol. 1
• Simone Molinaro: Fantasie, Canzoni e Balli
• Bach: Lute Works, Vol. 1

"If the lute could be said to have a star performer, then Paul O'Dette must surely be it. He's the most sought-after lute performer at music festivals round the world, his recordings are always showered with awards, and he has a virtuoso touch and musical intelligence that I've rarely seen matched." The Daily Telegraph

After having explored Morley's First Book of Consort Lessons, the sole publication of pieces of the time for the 'brocken consort', La Caccia now turns to one of the principal manuscript sources of music for the ensemble that was so much appreciated in England at the beginning of the 17th-century. Pieces and arrangements by Richard Allison and Daniel Bachiler form the greater proportion of the music found in the manuscript, whilst the musicians of La Caccia have also added a few vocal pieces to the programme, these being accompanied by the instruments of this characteristically British ensemble. Once again we may appreciate the freshness of the dances and the nostalgia that English composers of the time so enthusiastically cultivated.

Jacob Heringman is one of the foremost lutenists of his generation, “a master of his instrument” according to Classical Guitar magazine. He is the lutenist of choice for leading international musicians, including Barbara Bonney, Michael Chance, and The King’singers. His reputation for seeking out rare and unjustly neglected repertoire is well earned: previous solo recordings include the only solo lute CD devoted to Josquin des Prez. A veteran of the recording studio, Jacob appears on over 50 CDs as soloist, collaborator and ensemble member.