COMPOSERS: Corbetta
LABELS: Linn
ALBUM TITLE: Corbetta
WORKS: La guitarre royalle (excerpts)
PERFORMER: William Carter
CATALOGUE NO: CDK 185
The roving Italian guitarist Francesco
Corbetta charmed and conned his way
around half the courts of 17th-century
Europe. This superstar of the Baroque
instrument also pioneered the suite
form, and his creative skills have the
range and lyrical appeal to command
attention at full-disc length – a good
choice for a first solo recording by the
well-known London period-ensemble
player William Carter.
The gentle tune that opens the
CD forms the basis of a ten-minute
chaconne, full of resource in texture
and technique and spiced with
Scarlatti-style strumming. It turns
out to be Carter’s own conflation
from several chaconnes, though since
Corbetta himself happily recycled
variations between them there’s
nothing wrong with that. Most of
the other pieces, whether in suites or
stand-alones, are around two minutes
long. Their virtuosity is implicit rather
than flamboyant, the moods tending
to be relaxed in major keys and intense
though mostly quiet in the minor.
Carter sounds on top of their
demands. He indulges himself by
inventing a lively Spanish-style prelude
to one of the dances, but generally his
laid-back syle is at one with the idiom,
beautifully recorded. Robert Maycock