12 years after his album entitled ‘Italian Virtuosi of the Chitarrone’ (BIS-1899), Jakob Lindberg returns to his magnificent theorbo, specially built for him by the luthier Michael Lowe, based on an instrument preserved in the Musée de la Musique in Paris. One of the most spectacular instruments of the early baroque owing to its length and great number of strings, the theorbo was originally designed to accompany the voice, but is also ideally suited to solo performance. For this disc, Lindberg has chosen pieces by Robert de Visée, one of the great French masters of the lute, theorbo and guitar repertoire and a favourite of Louis XIV. The recording features dances as well as character pieces, including a moving ‘Plainte’ in memory of his two deceased daughters.

With her almost supernaturally clear and agile soprano, Emma Kirkby has enchanted audiences ever since she first appeared on the Early Music scene in the 1970s. And as the art of historically informed performance has become more and more widely appreciated, so has her style of singing, to the extent that she in 2007 was included in a listing of ‘the 20 greatest sopranos ever’ made by the BBC Music Magazine. Throughout her career, Emma Kirkby has made a large number of recordings of a wide range of music. Released on the occasion of her 60th birthday, the present collection celebrates her collaboration with BIS, which has resulted in ten discs to date.

In 1991 lutenist Jakob Lindberg bought a very special instrument – one of the rare extant lutes by Sixtus Rauwolf, built c. 1590. The restoration of the lute took several years and was rather painstaking: for some repairs they even used ancient wood from the library in the Palazzo Pitti in Florence. Considering the great age of the instrument it was nevertheless in good shape and is now probably the only one in the world that, retaining its original soundboard, is in playable condition.

Emma Kirkby sounds as lithe and radiant as ever, superbly able to negotiate Amodei's melismatic writing and imbue it with subtle but effective rhetoric.

12 years after his album entitled ‘Italian Virtuosi of the Chitarrone’ (BIS-1899), Jakob Lindberg returns to his magnificent theorbo, specially built for him by the luthier Michael Lowe, based on an instrument preserved in the Musée de la Musique in Paris. One of the most spectacular instruments of the early baroque owing to its length and great number of strings, the theorbo was originally designed to accompany the voice, but is also ideally suited to solo performance. For this disc, Lindberg has chosen pieces by Robert de Visée, one of the great French masters of the lute, theorbo and guitar repertoire and a favourite of Louis XIV. The recording features dances as well as character pieces, including a moving ‘Plainte’ in memory of his two deceased daughters. It also includes de Visée’s arrangements of compositions by Lully, Couperin and Purcell as well as his own version of Les Folies d’Espagne, a very popular chord progression that inspired so many composers of his time. Jakob Lindberg writes: ‘I can’t help but be seduced by the grace of the instrument’s lines, the resonance of its sonorities, and by the unmistakably French elegance of this remarkable composer.’

The popularity of the lute in the Renaissance and Baroque periods continued during the early years of Haydn's life. By this time it usually had thirteen courses (twenty-four strings arranged in pairs with the top two courses being single) and it was still appreciated among the European aristocracy. It is therefore not surprising to find four works for lute and strings by Joseph Haydn in two manuscript sources from the middle of the 18th century. Three of these are well known in versions for string quartet (Op.1 No.1, Op.1 No,6 and Op.2 No.2) whereas the Sonata a 3 in F major has not survived in any other form.

Un portrait de Luigi Boccherini (1743-1805) sans concerto pour violoncelle, sans le menuet fameux du quintette en mi majeur ? Mais non moins fidèle au caractère du compositeur toscan émigré en Espagne : fantasque et passionné.

Vivaldi wrote very little for the lute, guitar, or mandolin–all of which can be used to play this music. In fact the two concertos have become very popular among guitarists, who are always looking for something interesting to play that doesn't require too much effort to transcribe from another medium. The music itself, curiously, is among the composer's most popular. These particular performances have a very special beauty, partly the result of superb performances by all concerned, and partly due to the positively luminous recording quality. It's so pretty as pure sound, it's almost hypnotic. Those interested in this tiny but popular Vivaldian niche need look no farther.

The Orpheus in England title of this release refers to the fact that both John Dowland and Henry Purcell were honored with the "Orpheus" designation after their deaths, nearly 100 years apart. The booklet for this Swedish release even comes with an anonymous poem telling the deceased Purcell to "Touch but thy Lyre, the Stones will come and dance themselves into a Tomb." The unusual idea of connecting the two composers, who shared a common tendency toward a mixture of melancholy and daring harmonic thinking, works well, and there are many lovely moments here.

The early music revival has seen a spate of recordings of Corelli's music, both of his famous concerti grossi and of his less well-known sonatas. This recording of the first six sonatas each from Corelli's first and second published works was praised in the "Gramophone" magazine as possibly the best ever. These sonatas were all written for two violins plus "violone or archlute" plus organ or harpischord. After studying the scores, the Purcell Quartet concluded - and the sound of the recording proves them right - that they should perform the pieces with a violoncello playing the "violone" part, while they vary the bass, using an organ for five of the six Op. 1 sonatas and a theorbo on Op. 1 No. 4, while sticking with a harpsichord on Op. 2.

Bach was renowned as a keyboard player as well as being an accomplished violinist, but as far as we know he didn't play the lute. He seems to have been fascinated by the instrument’s special sound qualities, however, and was clearly inspired by the possibilities of the Lautenwerk. This was a gut-strung harpsichord designed to imitate the sound of the lute and at least some of the works usually referred to as ‘the Bach Lute Suites’ were probably composed for this instrument.

The Swedish lutenist, Jakob Lindberg, developed his first passionate interest in music through the Beatles. He started to play the guitar and soon became interested in the classical repertoire. From the age of 14 he studied with Jörgen Rörby who also gave him his first tuition on the lute. After reading music at Stockholm University he went to London to study at the Royal College of Music. Here he further developed his knowledge of the lute repertoire under the guidance of Diana Poulton and decided towards the end of his studies to concentrate on Renaissance and Baroque music.

Jakob Lindberg was born in Sweden and developed his first passionate interest in music through the Beatles. After studying music at Stockholm University he came to London to study at the Royal College of Music. Under the guidance of Diana Poulton he decided towards the end of his studies to focus on Renaissance and baroque music.

Jan Antonín Losy was born around 1650 of a prosperous Bohemian family. After the death of his father, the first Count of Losinthal, he inherited not only his title but also considerable wealth. He was therefore able to devote his life to music, and his skill as a lutenist became famous throughout Europe. Unlike professional players, Losy had no need to sell or publish his music but fortunately it has survived in numerous manuscript copies. Today we have almost 200 pieces by Count Losy, many of which once belonged together in larger suites or partitas.