Jacques Bittner (active around 1680) - Suite per liuto

[VelikyRostov9]

Although Michael's paying developed way beyond this in the last 15 years of his life, this Turnabout Vox recording is one of the few recordings that I like as much in middle age as I did when a teenager. It has a curious mix of childish naivete and old age knowingness about it... all under the veil of an eager mystery wrestling with itself to uncover itself.

[groach22]

yes dark&spellbindinding stright up cool

[JoelvanLennep]

Thank you, Totma, for your pleasant response, and this informative dialogue! JvL

[JoelvanLennep]

I can't do more than to refer you again to my remarks below. I will tell you that I also owned this recording c.4 decades ago and I also found it spellbinding. It is beautiful to me still, but it has too much "crispness" and "firmness" (metaphorical language is inadequate for discussing sound!) to sound very "French" - qua period French - to me. It reminds me of Walter Gerwig - another true musician, but not an interpreter of this music. I can't be clearer. Thank you for your response, though.

[Totma11]

@JoelvanLennep The tone production reminds me of Gerwig... probably due more to both using lutes by the same maker and nylon 'lute' strings by Pyramid than the fact this lutenist took lessons from Mr. Gerwig. Lute scholarship has come a long way... Yet, the only performance that has come close to giving me as much pleasure as Herr Schäffer's last album 'French Baroque Lute' was Mr. Smith's album of Vieux Gaultier upon thy lute. Thank you for that dark and melancholically nasale lute..

[JoelvanLennep]

Schaeffer's playing is admirably clear and precise - and very sensitive as well - but he doesn't bring out the French character of the music very well. Instead it sounds. well, German. Yes Bittner was of German origin, and the music has much of German gravity and profundity, but , please, a few of those nice, legato, whispering, left hand ornaments would bridge the differences of the two cultures!

[VelikyUstyug1]

@JoelvanLennep I can't see that this would be improved by 'bringing out the French character' of what. Why? To start... which French character? It's funny I say this, as normally I detest it when players make long flowing lines out of any music... much less something 'French'. Yet, this particular performance haunts me and has haunted me for decades. I'd like to analyze it in terms of agogics like I normally might... but it would fail- for what makes this spellbinding is something hidden.

[bashmetfan]

sai dirmi di chi è il dipinto? è meraviglioso, non lo conosco...

[kkallebb]

Thank you for posting this beautiful suite by Jacques Bittner, who seems to be one of the most under-rated, or at least under-performed, masters of the baroque lute. It was a pleasure listening to it, especially in this very fine performance by Michael Schaeffer.

[Polluxgeminae]

My name's Moisés Antonio Bittner. I'm a baroque flautist from Chile and I'm very proud to share my surname with a baroque ancestor. I'm part of an early music group called 'The Broken Consort'.

[pasqsaq]

Per me il compianto Michael Shaffer è stato il miglior interprete dei liutisti francesi del sec. XVII. Non conoscevo questa sua esecuzione della suite di Bittner (usa il liuto di Loewe?). Anche in questa occasione Shaffer appare come un interprete preciso e sensibile. Grazie infinite, caro Prof.