"Few have recorded [Bach's Lute Suites] with such a thrilling combination of technical flair, finesse and blazingly evident musical sympathy. It’s almost as if this music was waiting for Shibe to come along, the results are that breathtaking ... Shibe’s playing throughout the disc marries chamber-music delicacy with a rapt and pliable spirituality that is deeply affecting ... the way that Shibe offers so much light and shade, so much loving delineation of the various strands, and a certainty of pacing that blossoms naturally (and excitingly!) into the concluding virtuoso Allegro.

Certainly it’s one of the finest Bach discs to come our way in a long time"

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"Bach's music for the lute has been something of a connoisseur's speciality, but this album could change that ... hear it played on a guitar with the intelligence, fantasy, and palpable love that Shibe brings ... Fugues are unfolded with faultless attention to line. But more importantly, they live and breathe, and everything glows under the rich light of discovery. Stunningly recorded, this collection is a memento of a young artist on the vertiginous ascent, offering music making that is utterly ravishing"

"magnificent ... the flow of the E-minor Suite's Prelude is subtly arrested by expressively arpeggiated chords which throw into sharp relief a cut-glass Fugue that attunes the listener to rippling yet clearly defined semiquavers ... Has the Prelude, Fugue and Allegro ever sounded so contemporary in its nostalgic sweetness and, in the final movement, sheer unabashed joy?"

EDITOR'S CHOICE

"through Shibe’s sensitive playing it’s possible to discern the distinct personalities of the relatively youthful composer honing his craft and the mature master at the height of his powers ... The guitar is not known for its breadth of dynamic range, but Shibe shows clearly that it is perfectly possible to achieve great sonic variety, both in volume and in texture ... he achieves the seemingly impossible by successfully recreating something of the spirit of an expansive keyboard prelude ... nothing short of triumphant."

RECORDING OF THE WEEK

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"The tone is warm and rich, the playing astonishingly clean, the ornamentation delicately and imaginatively applied and Shibe's ability to voice Bach's separate lines borders on the astonishing ... I couldn't stop playing this recording - in fact it's some of the classiest and most compelling Bach playing I've heard on guitar ... It goes beyond the technique and that's astonishing in places... I'm learning things about the music I hadn't noticed before because of the way Shibe voices and inflects it with such intimate understanding"

ANDREW McGREGOR | Record Review

"A disc I never wanted to end: Sean Shibe displays clarity, structure and an innate sense of elegance … Bach was constantly re-inventing his music on other instruments, and on this disc Sean Shibe gives us a masterly and elegant demonstration of how suited it is to classical guitar. Shibe's Bach has a lovely clarity and sense of structure to it, along with his own innate sense of elegant in the playing.”

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

ROBERT HUGILL

"J’ai entendu ces pièces des centaines de fois dans le passé. Et j’en ai pratiqué quelques-unes à la guitare en tant qu’amateur. Les retrouver ici par le guitariste écossais Sean Shibe c’est comme les redécouvrir pour la première fois. Son jeu est d’une grande douceur, nuancé et coulant comme une eau limpide, en modulation constante, improvisé de phrasés libres et gracieux."

Le Parnasse Musical

"This astonishing guitarist born in Edinburgh to English and Japanese parents plays with such depth of tone, colour and intricacies of touch that it is as though he's at a harpsichord, not strumming or plucking fretted strings ... Shibe's music-making is masterful, beautiful and convincing in every way ... embellishments glint like jewellery ... How I panted for more"

"There are many performances of these works in the catalog. Vintage performances on guitar include Julian Bream and John Williams; a more recent and comparable release comes from Franz Halász, who plays the Suites in their original key for lute on modern guitar (see our review here). This new release is an essential addition to sit proudly alongside these formidable interpreters. Shibe is so successful here that another disc to complete the lute suites would be most desirable."

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