Nicolás, people are different, and that's a good thing. If you credit that booklet with having guided you to the baroque lute, then that's a good thing, too.
> Perhaps you refer > to the chapter "An update on performance practice", which is a bit severe > against the "historically authentic performance practice". First, I have to confess that I gave the CD away after listening and writing a review, because I didn't want to have it any more. So I cannot say to which particular chapter and verse I'd refer. What I do well remember, though, is that according to that booklet, 17th century French culture was all about everybody sporting their _decadence_ in terms of sophistication and elaborateness. Regarding music, that would imply that just everything concerning metre, tempo, gesture, would be veiled beyond recognition. (And that's IMHO how Lislevand interprets the music, indeed.) I call that nonsense because I think that this concept suggests that what Moliere depicted as a caricature of the précieux movement (in his comedy Les précieuses ridicules), was real life intended to be so. > Unless you're talking about his recommendation to listen his beautiful > French music in good company, with a glass of wine and some tasty cheese... That's one more thing I wouldn't stand. I do like to eat and and drink in advance or after a recital, but def not while listening. Would be like potato crisps in front of the TV set. Probably, I'm old-fashioned. I do not deny Lislevand's musicianship. He's a virtuoso. Yet because of his approach to this music, the pieces resulted in brilliant feats beyond recognition. La belle Homicide is a courante, and I for one should like to recognize a courante from the start. And if it's a courante, I'd like to have it go on like a courante, in a steady metre. The whole things reminds me of a friend of mine who told me some twenty years ago (when I had no baroque lute yet) that French baroque lute music is music by autistic composers intended for autistic audiences (von Autisten fuer Autisten), so you don't need to understand necessarily what's going on. Maybe it's a saraband, yes, but if it sounds like a gavotte because of rubato or something else, hey, so what? Hey, enjoy those brilliant arpeggios, that's what it's all about! I mean, that's caricature, isn't it. But it coined my prejudices about French baroque lute music for the next 15 years. OK, here I stop ranting. Hope you get the idea >8) -- Mathias To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
