Frank Scheuerle : Musik aus Renaissance und Barock: CD

VALDERRABANO: Soneto 2 ;  Soneto 1: MILAN: Fantasia 8: NARVAEZ: Differencias Sobre ‘Guardame Las Vacas’: DA MILANO : Ricercar 16; Fantasia 28, Fantasia 32; Fantasia 61:PICCININI : Aria di Saravanda in Varie Partite; Corrente 11: DOWLAND: Sir John Smith, His Almain; Lachrimae;Tarleton’s Risserectione :ROBERT JOHNSON: Alman: CUTTING: Greensleeves: ANON: The Cobbler: ABEL: Allegro D Moll WKO208; Allegro D Moll: BACH: Sonate No2 A Moll BWV1003 – a)3- Andante ; b) 4 – Allegro: WEISS: Tombeau sur la Mort de M.Cajetan Baron D’Hartig; Menuett.

Frank Scheuerle : Lute in G, Archlute in F, Baroque Mandolin, Cemonesiian Mandoline

WESPO.

This CD from German artist Scheuerle combines an extraordinary variety of rarely heard instruments with the repertoire of masters from the 16th to the 18th centuries. This recording features an alto lute, an archlute with additional bass strings, and two replicas of historical 18th-century mandolins with four single strings and six pairs of strings, respectively.The CD's repertoire ranges from works by the greatest vihuelists of the 16th century, who played at the Spanish courts, to music by the greatest lutenists such as Francesco da Milano, John Dowland, and Silvius Leopold Weiss, and culminates with Carl Friedrich Abel, the last great exponent of the viola da gamba. The program closes with the arrangement of two movements from the Violin Sonata BWV 1003 by Johann Sebastian Bach.

The sound is impressive and the opening pieces by Valderrabano are lovely performances. From then, the repertoire here goes through the timeline with Luis di Milan and then to the famous piece by Narvaez, both expertly done. Then we get 4 pieces from Francesco di Milano to the Aria di Saravanda by Piccinini, not a work I have heard before, this one played on the Archlute with the extended range. After this composer’s Corrente 11, we get three famous pieces from John Dowland and then the Alman from Robert Johnson, all lovely performances. Certainly the variety of both the music and the instruments he plays on makes for a very satisfying album. Then a lovely performance of Francis Cutting’s version of Greensleeves takes us to the only Anonymous piece, that being The Cobbler.After that the mandolins take over with Carl Friedrich Abel’s two interesting works. Even the following pieces by Bach are on the mandolin, not the lute as you might be expecting, which for me don’t work as well as they might on the lute or the guitar, but then you might think quite differently. Finally the album closes with two pieces from Silvius Leopold Weiss, perhaps the greatest exponent of the Archlute, with its fabulous extended bass range sound.

So you really do get a huge variety of sounds here, both from different eras, and different instruments, and so I found it a lovely CD with just that one little exception of the Bach being played on Mandolins. Other than that I thought this was a great CD

Chris Dumigan