I hope readers will forgive me for turning to an album which is was recorded in 2012 and released in 2016. Of course there’s nothing wrong with enjoying a wine today that was harvested back in 2016 (or some as far back as 2012), so in that spirit, I wanted to provide some commentary of an album of lute and guitar music performed by Rolf Lislevand.

One of my oft-played albums is by Lislevand, too on the ECM New Series label, his Nuove musiche which is an ensemble album and goes slightly off the HIPP rails into the spirit often welcomed by C. Pluhar’s L’Apreggiata ensemble. This album for me is a repeat customer on my hifi system because not only does the music speak to me, it’s one of the few audiophile albums that seems to take advantage of what my audio system can do. The rich sonorities and percussive effects of instruments like lutes and guitars can be intoxicating.

This album, however, features Lislevand by himself performing music by Corbetta and de Visée. I remember reading the liner notes some years ago, and was surprised I hadn’t reviewed the album. The notes describe the musician’s arrival at Versailles, with a hotel room that has a view of the palace. This music would have been enjoyed at court—inside the palace—and the album features pieces appropriate for a smaller guitar and the larger, more sonorous theorbo.

I’ve enjoyed other albums featuring music by these composers, but Lislevand has what some other players lack—great style and energy. The album is also made in a space that—he writes—was designed to approximate the acoustics at Versailles.

ECM recordings do not always hit all the marks for me in terms of acoustics—despite acoustics being rather important to their longstanding producer, Manfred Eicher. (To be more clear, I can’t recall any ECM New Series recording with poor acoustics, but I’m not always fully embracing the solutions chosen.) One such example might be the solo sonatas and partitas recorded by John Holloway; my taste would have been for a drier acoustic. But in this case, I am in love with the sound. It is that near perfect match of capturing enough of the close-ness of the lute or guitar but also getting an acoustic that just enhances the sound.

If I had to choose between one of the composers, de Visée’s music speaks to me more, perhaps it’s because so much of it goes to the theorbo, the larger, deeper-sounding instrument. In a couple cases, the written music is joined by small pieces by Lislevand himself. It was the performers own contributions to the Nuove Musiche album that catapulted it for me onto my desert island shelf. His contributions here do carry his own voice, but not one that would have been terribly foreign to the composers’ own music.

The contribution of original material—whether it’s ornaments, capricci, or entire new music to create suites—seems deeply rooted into period practice.

In another listen today, I’m convinced this is one of the best sounding solo lute (to be precise, theorbo) recordings made; it’s a combination of great acoustics, a performer who gets the style of the music, and of course great source material.

In a separate review I’m preparing of lute music from the early 1500s, it reminded me for how long the lute family played an important role in western music. The recording in question features just a six-course lute and the music itself is a bit more restrained in where the composer(s) in question could take us harmonically.

Re-listening to this album, and specifically to the piece for which the album was named—de Visée’s Mascarade—is the perfect fodder for imagining the richness of life at court. One can’t help but think backwards historically with the Olympics going on in Paris right now. The gamba might be the poster child instrument for the court of Louis XIV but this music—royal music to be sure—should not be missed.