Search - Sylvius Leopold Weiss, Konrad Junghanel (Junghänel/Junghaenel) :: Silvius Leopold Weiss: Suite in C minor; Prelude & Fuga in C; Suite in G minor

A Possible Alternative if Lutz Kirchhof's Weiss Recordings A

Leslie Richford | Selsingen, Lower Saxony | 07/20/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Silvius Leopold Weiss (1686 - 1750): Suite in C Minor; Prelude and Fuga in C Major; Suite in G Minor. Performed by Konrad Junghaenel on a lute by Nico van der Waals (1976). Recorded at St. Stephen's Church in Melsen, Belgium (no date given). First published in 1979; re-released in 2008 as Accent Plus 10010. Total playing time: 58'41".



If somone were to ask me for a recommendation concerning the lute music of Silvius Leopold Weiss (a contemporary of Bach and Telemann, born in Breslau and famous in his day as THE greatest lutenist around), I would probably speak first about Lutz Kirchhof's Weiss CDs for Sony Vivarte (Weiss: Lute Works, Vols. 1 & 2) which have kept me fascinated for a long time. But if these were not available, I think Konrad Junghaenel's 1979 recording would be something of a replacement. The early digital recording is perhaps not quite so good as Wolf Erichson's engineering on Sony and does not quite capture the sense of stillness and wonderment which, in my opinion, should always accompany good lute playing; but Junghaenel plays stylistically well enough, and the sound of his modern copy of an 18th century lute is good enough to give an impression of why S. L. Weiss was so much admired in his day, including the playing of "polyphonic" music, something that, in the heyday of the lute a hundred years earlier, had not been considered possible. The Accent re-issue is accompanied by a thin booklet with a biographical note in English, French and German."