Lislevand Shifts Attention from France to Italy

Those that recall my tenure with Examiner.com may recognize the name of lutenist Rolf Lislevand. Towards the end of May of 2016, I wrote about my first encounter with him through the ECM New Series album La Mascarade. That album presented music from the court of Louis XIV with attention to the French composer Robert de Visée and the Italian-born Francesco Corbetta. This coming Friday, ECM will release a new Lislevand album. This one “shifts the geography” from France to Italy with music composed for archlute and chitarrone composed by Giovanni Girolamo (or Johann(es) Hieronymus) Kapsberger, Giovanni Paolo Foscarini, Bernardo Gianoncelli, and Diego Ortiz. By of “full disclaimer,” I should let readers know that only the last of those four names was familiar to me, having encountered him in my college days when I subscribed to the Musical Heritage Society.

Cover of Rolf Lislevand’s latest ECM album

The title of the new album is Libro primo, and it will be released this coming Friday. Lislevand chose this title in dedication “to the works of Italian composers for the lute in the first half of the 17th century, largely published in their first printed books.” That explanation makes for a bit of a stretch, particularly since not all of the composers were Italian by birth! Furthermore, Lislevand injects one of his own compositions into the fray, a passacaglia with an easily recognizable nod to Ludwig van Beethoven! It is also worth noting that the two Ortiz compositions, “Recercada quinta” and “Recercada sesta,” are both variations on the same theme, one I recognized thanks to the Musical Heritage Society!

For the most part, the album is dominated by the Libro primo d’intavolatura di lauto, a compilation of compositions by Kapsberger. I must confess that my personal interest was inclined towards Ortiz, even though I had recently encountered Kapsberger in St. Mark’s Lutheran Church at the end of this past March! Preferences aside, however, I was impressed by the diversity in repertoire that Lislevand selected for this album. I suppose I enjoy the experience of cultivating a bridge between “favorite tunes” from the past with the “new encounters” performed by Lislevand on his new release.