Listen before you buy
Lyle Crawford | BC, Canada | 05/06/2010
(3 out of 5 stars)
"This brief review is a comment on the recorded sound. A note by O'dette inserted into the booklet explains the circumstances under which this recording was made. An earthquake forced a last minute change of recording location, to the historically suitable, but unfortunately acoustically less suitable, Castello Piccolomini in Capestrano. O'dette remarks: "While the acoustics of the Castello are perhaps more reverberant than one is accustomed to hearing on lute recordings it is nevertheless a venerable edifice that Marco may well have known, and it lends a special air of historical presence to the sound."
Unfortunately this is a bit of an understatement. Even if you don't insist on a dry, neutral acoustic for lute, the reverb here really is out of control. Many tracks end with a noticeable abrupt attenuation that cuts off what would clearly be several seconds of decaying sound. Much of the playing, though wonderful as always from O'dette, is an unpleasant jumble of sound. Perhaps I'm just naive about the logistics and constraints of classical music recordings, but it is hard to believe that a one-man, one-lute recording project could not have been rescheduled so as to find a suitable location. This music deserved better from Harmonia Mundi."
Ignore the previous reviews and make up your own mind
Person | hmm | 05/22/2010
(4 out of 5 stars)
"I write this because I am disgusted at the way the previous reviewers would jeopardise sales for a lute CD - A LUTE CD!! Its not as if lute music needs any more adversity to survive in this business. And they do this purely on the basis of a sound that they find hard to get used to.
This is, I think, the key phrase - the sound takes time to get used to, but it is well worth the effort, and the playing is divine. The accoustic does blur some of the intricacies of the countrepoint and it favours atmosphere over detail - but if you have one cd in your collection that does this, (and to great effect too, albet a different effect from say, O'dette's earlier Francesco disk) what is the harm?
The only harm is done by irresponsible reviewers like the previous two, who feel their opinions are more important than the cd-sales of a fine artist working in an extremely perilous comercial environment."
Track Listings (36) - Disc #1