Weiss: The Silesian Master of Lute: Sonatas in F and D; Tombeau sur la mort de M Cajetan Baron d'Hartig etc

COMPOSERS: Weiss
LABELS: Dux
ALBUM TITLE: Weiss
WORKS: The Silesian Master of Lute: Sonatas in F and D; Tombeau sur la mort de M Cajetan Baron d’Hartig etc
PERFORMER: Jakob Lindberg (lute)
CATALOGUE NO: Dux 0581

There might be a ‘Silesian’ agenda to this latest ‘Wratislavia Cantans’ release, but Weiss can hold his head high world-wide. Corelli and the Scarlattis who met him in Italy thought so, as did JS Bach who transcribed one of his works for violin and keyboard. Indeed at the Dresden Court Weiss was the highest paid musician, and on his tomb would be carved ‘Silvius alone must touch the lute’. Happily Jakob Lindberg has ignored the injunction and supplements two sonatas (suites in all but name) with a trio of contrasted miniatures (the ‘Tombeau’ for Baron d’Hartig not quite in the same league as the more famous one for Count Logy despite Lindberg’s sweetest gravitas). He’s generally less extrovert than Lutz Kirchhof – who is playful and considerably faster in the Capriccio – and he serves up the concluding Gigue of the F major Sonata with a measured sobriety (did Weiss know the last movement of Bach’s Fifth French Suite incidentally?). But the forthright ebullience of the D major Sonata is given full reign, especially in the lively colouring of the Courante and cheery Angloise. Best of all is the final work, a compact yet infinitely touching G minor Ciacona which Lindberg unfolds with an expansive elegance.