MILANO: Fantasias, Ricercars and Duets

Great music delivered quickly and without flaw. Thankyou

Well played. Acoustic okay without being brilliant. Pleasant. Smooth. No surprises here, but no clinkers either

A nice relaxing listen, makes for good background music or put headphones on and listen properly!

This was the first record of lute music I ever bought and I think it's still my favourite. Some people find the playing too dry and there is trend (allegedly backed up by scholarly analysis of playing styles of the time) to go for more emotional interpretations (viz Hopkinson Smith) but whatever the musicology of the question, I find the rarefied style, with just enough emotion to make you hallucinate, absolutely captivating. It is the most peaceful music I know, but not at all devoid of drama. Francesco was named 'Il Divino' in his time and has an incredible facility for capturing the spirit and counterpoint of the great renaissance masters (of which he would have been considered one had his chosen instrument not passed into obscurity).There are stories of listeners going senseless with rapture at his playing. I imagine Christopher Wilson's interpretation as being true to this spirit. The short, structurally perfect fantasias and ricercars are like musical haikus. The sound is soft and silvery. This record made me take up the lute.