Lute News no. 93 (April 2010)

Denis Gautier and Francesco da Milano are perhaps the two composers for the lute who made fullest use of the resources of the instruments available to them at the time. They had the advantage that although their instruments were rather different, both were experiencing a period of relative stability free from radical structural changes.
The lute used on this recording was made in Augsburg in 1722 by Gregori Ferdinand Wenger and is strung entirely in gut. Due to a string length that might be considered long by today's standards but not by those of the time, it is tuned a third lower than modern pitch. These factors combine to produce a rich warm sound rather different to that which to which we have become accustomed from modern instruments and synthetic strings. As Anthony Bailes remind us, players of the period favoured older instruments over those that were newly constructed although they wouldn't have had the opportunity to experience something over 250 years old.
Four sets of pièces grouped by key are presented, two from Denis Gautier's first printed book whose publication he closely oversaw, one from the second printed book published not long after his death and one from the manuscript collection La Rhetorique des Dieuw. It is the Allemande from the last of these that provides the title for this disc and if any evidence were required of the esteem in which Denis Gautier was held in his own time the care and effort lavished on this manuscript provides ample. No formal chaconnes by Denis survive though two by his older cousin Ennemond (le Vieux) are included here, one from the Saizenay manuscript and the other (sans chanterelle) from the Robarts lute book.
I can remember hearing Anthony Bailes playing pieces by Denis and Ennemond Gautier at Lute Society events in the 1970s and I'm sure I was not the only for whom these performances removes the mystery surrounding what can initially seem to be rather unapproachable music. For the unenlightened this recording fulfils the same service. With playing of this calibre it is difficult to single out individual pieces for praise but I particularly enjoyed the sarabandes with the tirer et rabattre figuration, where the first finger gently strums two or three courses avoiding those adjacent, that can be so difficult to perform convincingly and with subtlety.
It is rare and happy event to encounter a recording that comes as close to perfection as does this disc.

Peter Lay