Search - Silvius Leopold Weiss, Sylvius Leopold Weiss :: Weiss: Sonatas played on the unique 1590 Sixtus Rauwolf Lute

Blast from the past

sound-mind | USA | 01/03/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This recording is deeply satisfying on so many levels. It goes without saying that playing Weiss' music this well is the dream of most students of early music, but I bought this CD to hear this particular lute. The selection of the pieces, the respectful interpretation and Jakob Lindberg's masterful playing allow this 400 year old lute to reach out and speak with power, subtlety and grace. There is nothing tentative about the playing, no holding back for fear of damaging a delicate "antique", (apparently the oldest playable lute still in possession of its original soundboard) The diapasons are deep and warm, the trebles clear and sure of themselves. There are no traces of muddiness, no jarring timbre shifts going from low to high. It is bright and open without sounding glassy or fragile (Not a single inadvertent twang, even in the Musette). The decay and the sustain are perfectly balanced. (The choice of strings seems just perfect). This is a mature performance on a beautifully matured instrument. It's akin to letting your teeth sink gently into a perfectly ripened peach and finding the taste even sweeter than you had anticipated."

Weiss on Rauwolf lute by Jakob Lindberg

Bobbye Larson | Duluth, Monnesota | 12/08/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is an important historical recording. Jakob Lindberg is playing his famous 1590 Rauwolf lute, the most important playable lute in existance. He bought it at Sothby's in 1989, and it has been meticulously and brilliantly restored by Michael Lowe and others, a project that took 20 years.



It was well worth the effort, because Jakob Lindberg is the most talented performer of lute music today. His deep understanding of Weiss and his sensitive playing makes this the most valuable lute recording I have ever owned. This recording should be a major part of anyone's lute library. Don't miss it."

What Bach Must Have Heard?

Giordano Bruno | Wherever I am, I am. | 07/20/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Sylvius Leopold Weiss (1686-1750) was an almost exact contemporary of JS Bach, and is known to have visited Bach in Leipzig though he was more closely associated with composer Johann Fux and the musical establishment of Vienna. Weiss was renowned as a lutenist, probably the foremost virtuoso of his era on that instrument. As far as I know, all his surviving compositions were intended for lute and probably for his own performance. It takes a virtuoso to bring a virtuoso's musical craft to life, and thus deep in the heart of every living lutenist is the desire to play "Weiss" convincingly. To my ears, very few have succeeded. Robert Barto is prominent among those who have tried, with at least nine or ten CDs of Weiss's sonatas and fantasies on Naxos CDs. I'm sorry to say that I don't find Barto's performances entirely satisfying; he has odd lapses of phrasing and passages where I seem to hear him under stress in covering the notes. You won't hear any such stress in this performance by Jacob Lindberg, whose technique sounds utterly effortless both in rhythm and in affective timbre. It helps of course that he's playing a superbly restored historical lute, a veritable "Stradivarius" among plucked strings. There are adequate samples here on ammy, so I needn't rhapsodize. I only regret that Lindberg hasn't set out to record a "complete Weiss" to compete with Barto's."