'Simply the best recording of lute music I have had the pleasure of listening to.' Gramophone
'...full of insights, always delivered in that calm, almost deliberate way of his, with a lustrous tone of great beauty.' Classical Guitar
The programme opens with Weiss' 'L'infidèle' Sonata, the work which inspired North to play the D minor tuned eighteenth-century lute. Weiss was undoubtedly the greatest lutenist-composer of his time; and Tombeau sur la mort de M. Comte de Logy is perhaps his most well-known piece and has been widely performed. The Prelude, Fantasia and Fugue in C major pay tribute to Weiss' skill as an improviser and demonstrate a truly idiomatic lute style. Transcription has long been a popular tool for both composers and performers; here both Bach and North contribute to an innovative reworking of what was originally a Vivaldi violin concerto. Bach's Chaconne in the lute's 'home' key of D minor adapts perfectly to the instrument; so successful was North's transcription that he went on to transcribe Bach's complete music for solo cello and violin.
Gramophone
...a maker of fine music that can be listened to purely for what it is.
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Classical Guitar
There are very few lutenists more compelling than Nigel North.
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