Robinson, T: Passamezo Galyard

The reign of Elizabeth Tudor (1558-1603) brought with it a period of splendour for England, within which the lute experienced its moment of glory. In paintings from this time convivial scenes featuring performers of harp and lute are often depicted.

Well known melodies of the epoch, as well as harmonic sequences such as Bergamasca, Ruggiero, Callinoe, Conde Claros and various Dumps were used by performers when they gathered to improvise together. Sometimes the music was dedicated to a well known personality of the court such as was surely the case with 'The Queenes Good Night', inspiring sweet dreams for Elizabeth.

For this recording Marie Nishiyama and Rafael Bonavita have mixed the colours of harp and lute, the characteristics of each instrument to create a dialogue of sound between the two. A dialogue that goes – as does this repertoire – beyond epochs and styles.

L’Art du Bois presents a new CD of musical treasures from the pens of the most varied composers of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, all of whom worked in England. The renaissance and Baroque instrumental pieces collected here are performed by the lively and talented ensemble L’Art du Bois.

Following his highly successful ECM debut with Nuove Musiche in 2006, the new CD by Norwegian lutenist Rolf Lislevand and his group of international early music virtuosi is an album of melodic beauty and rhythmic energy that transcends the genres and is likely to appeal to listeners from different backgrounds including early music, jazz and ethnic music.

Lislevand is one of the most charismatic figures in today's early music scene and an outstanding lute virtuoso whose vigorous music making is firmly rooted in scholarship. Here are stunning improvisations based on vocal compositions from 16th century Italy: the birth of instrumental virtuosity out of embellished song. His creative and delightful approach to rarely heard repertoire is comparable to Christina Pluhar's work with L’Arpeggiata but is even more original in its concentration on lesser known composers.

Once again putting a strong emphasis on improvisation, Lislevand and his colleagues disclose the astounding modernity and emotional wealth in the music of composers such as Giovanni Antonio Terzi and Joan Ambrosio Dalza. Most of the music stems from the Veneto region of Italy where, at that period, strong influences of oriental and eastern music could be felt. Lislevand's group translates this with a lush scoring for deep instruments, both stringed and plucked, and adds to the line-up two sopranos, Anna Maria Friman and Linn Andrea Fuglesth, from the immensely popular a-cappella group Trio Mediaeval.