Visée:
Suite in A minor
Suite in D major
Pieces in D minor
Pieces in C minor
Pieces in G major
Suite in E minor
Folies d’Espagne

12 years a)er his album en1tled ‘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 composi1ons 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 1me. Jakob Lindberg writes: ‘I can’t help but be seduced by the grace of the instrument’s lines, the resonance of its sonori1es, and by the unmistakably French elegance of this remarkable composer.’