Customer Reviews

Weiss: Lute Concerti

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
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1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a superb reconstruction and performance of how 6 of Weiss's lute concerti might have sounded. Richard Stone is an accomplished master of the lute as well as historically informed baroque music performance, now director of his own ensemble "Tempesta di Mare". Anyone interested in baroque lute or baroque concerti should give serious audition to this enjoyable recording.
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Weiss is one of few composers to challenge master Bach - in lute repertoire. Weiss was an absolute master of this instrument. If you love Bach and Vivaldi concertos I am sure this cd will delight you and will endure repeated listening. Try the first track to sample. Richard Stone is a wonderful artist - this Chandos recording is easier to find than his excellent solo disc on Titanic. Both are recommended with enthusiasm.

S. L. Weiss is one of the most profound German composers. Quite a few has wondered how his compositions for orchestra may have sounded. I was rather eager to know the answere. Was this a hidden gem like the J. Fr. Fasch-concerto in d minor written for Weiss, and recorded by Musica Anitqua KölnConcerti 'per l'orchestra di Dresda' (Heinichen, Veracini, Quantz, Pisendel, Fasch, Dieupart) /Musica Antiqua Koln * Goebel? I must admit that I was rather let down here.

Weiss composed a few concertos for lute and strings, where only the rudiments are known, mainly because of loses from the archives where they were kept. He was primarily known in his days for his fantastic improvisations, his lute-suites and continou-playing, but he must also have been a rather good soloist in chamber-music. And that is what this music is, intimate music, but that is not to say bloodless and bleak, as it is played in this recording.

Stone has tried to fill in the missing parts, but, sadly, I do not find these atempts succesfull. La Tempesta di Mare, sounds rather uncertain, as if they do not trust the music to hold all the way to the last movement. Anyway, they do not seem to take theire name serious, as there is not a even a slight breez in sight here.

Stone has done a great job earlier in Weiss' music - so why record these rather pale and wayward concertos? They are clearly not "Echt" Weiss and there is little sense of direction in them. These arrangments seem to cry out for something quite different - improvisation, imagination and stronger characherization from both arranger/soloist and ripieno. That must be "the rub" here, if they are to be saved from "a sea of woes" where they seem to linger in a bleak and suspensless vacuum.