DCD34011-CD

Les plaisirs les plus charmants

From its earliest beginnings, the five-course Baroque guitar was associated – for better or worse – with dance music, becoming the sensuous younger cousin of the lute or vihuela. In this mélange of music from seventeenth-century France, some of it recorded for the first time, and performed on baroque guitars including an original historic instrument from the Edinburgh University Collection of Historic Instruments, Gordon Ferries weaves a tapestry of sound that is at once elegant, earthy, and utterly timeless.

"Delicately poised playing"

"I have nothing but praise for Gordon Ferries’ musicianship, care and determination to present this music, mostly for the first time for two hundred and fifty years, to a modern audience."

"This is the most satisfying recording of baroque guitar music to have come my way in the last year or so, one which demands to be sat down and listened to, rather than used as musical wallpaper. It is to be hoped that Ferries soon has further opportunities to present us with more of this repertoire."

LUTE NEWS

"Scots guitarist Gordon Ferries, however, is an expert in his field, and picks his way stylishly on period instruments through the selection of suites, chiaconas and other sundry numbers."

"Stylish and accessible baroque from an exponent whose star is in the ascendant."

CLASSICAL GUITAR

"From the early 17th century, the lute lost ground to the baroque guitar, to the horror of both lutenists and moralists, and Gordon Ferries’ Les Plaisirs les plus charmants shows off its rival seductions, from the delicacy of suites by de Visée and the less well-known Grénerin and Médard, and charming arrangements of works by Marais, Campra, Lully and Couperin, to the show-stopping virtuoso strummed chaconnes by the great Francesco Corbetta. Very good playing, and an excellent booklet essay."

EARLY MUSIC TODAY

Release Date: 1 July 2003
Catalogue No: DCD34011
Total playing time: 1:12:07

Recorded on 2-4 January 2003 at Reid Concert Hall, Edinburgh
Producer: & Engineer: Paul Baxter
24-bit digital editing: Paul Baxter
24-bit digital mastering: Paul Baxter

Design: Kevin Findlan
Booklet editor: Kevin Findlan
Cover image: Rémy Médard, Sarabande from Suite in G minor Pièces de guitarre, 1676 (Courtesy Editions Minkoff, Geneva)
Session photography: Paul Baxter

Album Booklet

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