Corbetta

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