Recensioni

The music is refined and elegant, with rhythmic complexity augmented by subtle ornamentation and inegalité, as prescribed in Reusner's introductions to each book. Her playing is tuneful and stylish, with a sweet treble and warm bass, but it can also express darkness, as in the first movement of the A minor suite. She handles the rhythmic challenges and piquant discords with panache and successfully brings out the different character of each suite, which makes for a varied and engaging recital. Two fine lutes by Nico van der Waals are featured, one very resonant and used for all but the D minor suite, the other darker and more veiled, presumably strung appropriately for the tuning. This is a most welcome release that features much music that is rarely, if ever, heard.
John Reeve

ZEITSCHRIFT “IL FRONIMO”
Giorgio Ferraris über die CDs LES ACCORDS NOUVEAUX III und IV:

Richter affronta il repertorio di questi dischi con la sicurezza della veterana, ehe si puo permettere ogni raffinatezza stilistica, permeata sempre da bon gout, con agrements palesi e nascosti, scritti o improvvisati: son file, son enjle, jlattement, coule, tour de gosier, chute, accent, tremblement (feint, subit, appuye, double), inegalites, diminutions, rubato, arpegement .... Il suono, molto bello ed espressivo, e ben supportato dagli strumenti impiegati: due "undici ordini" di Nico van der Waals, uno del 1992 e uno del 1993. Per chi non lo conoscesse, solo un cenno sul liutaio: con un'esperienza cinquantennale, l'abilita suprema nell'uso del legno e una sensibilita musicale raffinatissima, e riconosciuto come uno dei massimi liutai viventi. Anche a lui si deve la fondazione del Castello del Liuto, un'istituzione culturale sempre piu importante.

Giorgio Ferraris

Richter presents a set of suites drawn together from various sources. Most are in the standard baroque D-minor tuning, but two of the suites are in earlier transitional tunings, whose sonorities are pleasingly exploited by Dufaut. One or two of the pieces, such as the sober 'Tombeau de M. Blancrocher' from the Saizenay manuscript, display the 'very grave and learned' character ascribed to Dufaut by Mary Burwell in her manuscript lute tutor, but these are well balanced by light-footed courantes and frisky gigues.

The final pieces are a homage to Dufaut by Jacques Gallot le Vieux, taken from his Pièces de Luth and found also in Saizenay. The F sharp minor tonality (named by Gallot as the Ton de la chevre) comes as a sharp contrast to the preceding B flat major, and the closing 'Sommeil de Dufaut' is equally arresting, covering four different time signatures in the course of an 8-line piece. Maybe it was intended as a microcosm of Dufaut's styles. Sigrun Richter plays with authority and a sensitivity which brings out the best in the music. An enjoyable disc.

Peter Martin

Lauten-Info 4/ 2105 der Deutschen Lautengesellschaft:
Im Übergang von der Zeit der Accords Nouveaux zum Nouvel Accord Ordinaire schein sich die stille, manchmal leicht melancholische Heiterkeit der Musik in einen tiefen Ernst verwandeln zu wollen. Richter spielt beide Seiten de Dufautschen Musikschaffens mit großem Ton und ebenso großem musikalischem Atem, und wenn die Musik es erfordert auch mal mit kräftigem Zugriff. Es ist ein Vergnügen, dieser CD zu lauschen.

Particolarmente interessante il repertorio proposto dalla Richter perché con un disco considera l'aspetto monografico di un autore, Pierre Gaultier, mentre con l'altro svolge invece una ponoramica sul mondo circostante con compositori come Mézangeau, Dubuisson, Chevalier, Bouvier e Dufaut.
Nei due dischi la Richter pone in luce tutta la seduzione idiomatica del liuto francese, imperniata su una estrema attenzione alla melodia che si compone, infarcita di abbellimenti, nelle difficoltà dello stile brisé. Le inegalités, gli accordi arpeggiati, il frasseggio, la cura nella realizzazione degli infiniti abbellimenti, le variazioni nei ritornelli, si alternano anche a momenti di puro virtuosismo nella Chaconne o nella Battaille di Gaultier, resi con la necessaria padronanza e sprezzatura.
La Richter utilizza in pieno le sfumature dai due bellissimi liuti impiegati: un 10 ordini Joh. Georg Houcken e un 11 ordini di Nico van der Waals.

D'India's music encompasses a wide range of forms and moods: lively strophic arias and canzonettas, songs over a ground bass, laments, and through-composed 'madrigals' (these particularly show the composer's taste for exotic and expressive surprise key changes) and the rich, clear, flexible voice of Gundula Anders expresses them all most eloquently. Her execution of florid baroque ornaments, including vibrato as an expressive ornament, is virtuosic (a song about the nightingale gives her room to spread her wings on this score), and her intonation is faultless. This is dramatic, passionate, text-led song, with frequent changes of mood and emotional colour, even from one line to the next, and Anders portrays each emotion very sensitively. Highlights from this point of view are her performances of an extraordinary 8-minute long 'lettera amorosa', a passionate love letter in verse set as a recitative, and (even better music I think) a 9-minute long 'Lamento d'Olimpia'. The accompaniments are technically assured and sensitive througout, and what a treat to hear, besides the archlute and gut-strung chitarrone, the sound of a brass-strung chitarrone on 5 of the tracks (including a famous Piccinini chaconna), and the poignant double-stopped chords of a lirone. Sigrun Richter contributes four solos, a prelude by Kapsberger, and two toccatas and a chaconna by Piccinini, all well played with what seems to me just the right degree of internal variety of tempo, and rubato.
An excellent recording of passionate music, by a composer who on a good day could give Monteverdi a run for his money.

Die in Marburg an der Lahn geborene Lautenistin Sigrun Richter, eine Schülerin Konrad Junghänels, spielt diese Instrumente meisterhaft, Hille Perls warmherzige Gambenkunst zu loben, hieße Eulen nach Athen tragen und als Krone dieser Einspielung erklingt Gundula Anders' volle Stimme mit beweglicher Leichtigkeit, die an expressionistische Farbenspiele in einem Springbrunnen gemahnt, ohne dabei jemals in die Gefahr interpretatorischer Leichtigkeit abzurutschen. Eine wunderbare Aufnahme, die durch das puristische Direct Stereo Verfahren höchstmögliche Klangtreue und -präzision bewahrt.