Customer Reviews

Ancient Airs and Dances: 16th Century Songs & Dances for Lute

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'Ancient Airs and Dances' performed by Paul O'Dette on lutes and guitar, accompanyied by vocals from tenor Rogers Covey-Crump, violinist, John Holloway, lutist, Nigel North, and base viol player Christel Thielmann has all the qualities I like in medieval performances, with the bonus that even I, who has virtually no real training in either stringed instruments or ancient music can appreciate the skill with which these pieces, many by an anonymous composer, are performed.

I would probably not have bought this CD if it were not for the combination of artist O'Dette's reputation plus the recording label, Hyperion, whose relatively pricy works are always superior, especially for performances involving a small ensemble.

I usually listen to all music simply for the visceral punch, or in an attempt to educate my viscera to get more punch from an unfamiliar style of music.

While this recording does not leave my viscera unengaged, it is outstanding in the sense that it successfully involves my higher cognitive functions, which Mick and Keith rarely reach.

Very highly recommended as a sample of old music.

For anyone who enjoys Renaissance music this is an absolute must have. O'Dette and his group perform the original works upon which Respighi based his famous suites... Ancient Airs and Dances for the Lute.

This is a difficult CD to find, and with Amazon's great price, I bought several additional to give as gifts. ;-)

This is a marvelous CD of Paul O'Dette playing the original lute versions of the airs and dances Respighi choose for his Ancient Airs and Dances (written from 1917 to 1932).

Especially wonderful is the "Bergamasca" played on the archlute.

The music on this CD is lovely. Well played, well recorded, beautifully sung.

I had a problem playing the CD on my Mac Mini with Itunes 10.5.1. Tonight I got a software update notice, saying that Itunes 10.5.2 fixes a problem that causes distortion when playing or adding certain CDs to the library. This disc was one of the problematic ones, but updating to Itunes 10.5.2 fixed the problem. The CD now plays perfectly.