Sylvius Leopold Weiss - Weiss: Sonatas for Lute, Volume 1
List Price:
Our Price: $6.34
You Save: $2.65 (29%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $3.99 (click here)
Category: Music CD
See more CD details
Buy this Music CD at online store in your country
Canadian Music Store
Canadian Music Store
CD Details
Artist: Sylvius Leopold WeissEdition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 2000-10-05
Music Label: Naxos
Soundtracks:
- Sonata for lute in D minor (Dresden MS No. 6; London MS No. 7), SC 11: Fantasia
- Sonata for lute in D minor (Dresden MS No. 6; London MS No. 7), SC 11: Allemande
- Sonata for lute in D minor (Dresden MS No. 6; London MS No. 7), SC 11: Courante
- Sonata for lute in D minor (Dresden MS No. 6; London MS No. 7), SC 11: Bourrée
- Sonata for lute in D minor (Dresden MS No. 6; London MS No. 7), SC 11: Sarabande
- Sonata for lute in D minor (Dresden MS No. 6; London MS No. 7), SC 11: Menuet
- Sonata for lute in D minor (Dresden MS No. 6; London MS No. 7), SC 11: Giga
- Sonata for lute in B flat major (Dresden MS No. 25), SC 49: Allemande
- Sonata for lute in B flat major (Dresden MS No. 25), SC 49: Courante
- Sonata for lute in B flat major (Dresden MS No. 25), SC 49: Bourrée
- Sonata for lute in B flat major (Dresden MS No. 25), SC 49: Sarabande: Grave
- Sonata for lute in B flat major (Dresden MS No. 25), SC 49: Menuet
- Sonata for lute in B flat major (Dresden MS No. 25), SC 49: Presto
- Sonata for lute in A minor (Dresden MS No. 14), SC 42: Allemande: Largo
- Sonata for lute in A minor (Dresden MS No. 14), SC 42: Allegro
- Sonata for lute in A minor (Dresden MS No. 14), SC 42: Bourrée: Posato
- Sonata for lute in A minor (Dresden MS No. 14), SC 42: Sarabande
- Sonata for lute in A minor (Dresden MS No. 14), SC 42: Menuet
- Sonata for lute in A minor (Dresden MS No. 14), SC 42: Giga: Presto
Music reviews of Weiss: Sonatas for Lute, Volume 1
Music Review: lost treasure unearthed!
Rating: 5 Stars
If you don't want the social history or to be convinced about the merits of Weiss viz. Bach, you needn't read past the first paragraph: Barto is so very good; the recording first-rate. Rarely does a product of any type whatsoever provide this magnitude of "bang for your buck." Cannot recommend it more highly. I'm just so glad someone has at last dusted off these lovely gems and shone such a radiant light on them.
Now then...
The guitar has superceded the lute since the Viennese Classical period (as the bourgeois parlor's answer to the lute's place in the Court). But when the orchestras had grown to overblown proportions as though to reflect the decadence of the age which culminated in the astonishing catastrophe of the great struggle between Germany and America to supplant England's place as preeminent empire in the War of 1914-1945, the lute indeed seemed to have not a huge significance in the universe. Then there was the guitar renaissance of the post-war period, for which we must rightly praise Segovia (over his playing itself!), who peddled the guitar as, basically, a portable one-man mini-orchestra (yes, "man" here really means the male species: the guitar, unfortunately retains its mystique as a reproduction of the female body in finely polished lumber to be played by a man; it is of course the preferred common instrument of wooing, as though one's faculty with the strings demonstrates superior manhood). For decades the name "Weiss" was largely known only through transcriptions to that instrument of his effusively-
monickered masterpiece the "Tombeau sur la morte de M. Comte de Logy." Even amongst those in the know, Weiss yet remains overshadowed as the "Bach of the lute" - a qualification certainly containing praise but a tad backhandedly, as the very need for a qualification as such speaks for itself: this guy is NOT Bach. Well, that is certainly true. Despite that he had an astonishing plethora of children, many of whom went of to be >almost< first-rate composers themselves, their is yet only one BAAAAACH.
An old and terrible joke: put on your best Arnold Schwarzenneger voice and say, "I'll be 'back' ... and you'll be Beethoven."
Anyhoo, Weiss deserves a place of his own, yet if we can't help but place him without resort to the one master, let's do it through distinction, so to speak:
Firstly, Bach didn't actually write anything strictly for lute. He composed a few works for lautenklavier, a keyboard instrument that, rather than hammering strings like a piano, mechanically plucked them so as to approximate the sound of the lute. As written, these works are in fact not playable on the lute, since Bach saw no need to confine these compositions (most famous eg. is BWV 999) to an instrument for which he wasn't actually composing. Weiss was a thoroughgoing lutenist. Hence, there is a properness of relation between composition and instrument that experience in listening if not strict expertise can teach us to appreciate. Weiss thereby opens the door to a certain sublimnity in how his style diverges from Bach's even while it only in places (indeed, "only"!) achieves the degree of mastery for which we know Bach qua Bach.
Secondly, one can, 'pragmatically' let us say, concisely distinguish two modalities of mood with the terms "Happy Bach" and "Sad Bach." For example, French Suite No. 5 is Happy Bach and the Erbarme dich from St. Matthew's Passion is (unquestionably) Sad (Bach, like many ultra-geniuses, might have been a manic-depressive of sorts). The distinction tends to fall between pieces - mainly the chamber works and short organ pieces, but also functions often for the cantatas. While this claim is but a limited generalization, I submit that Weiss is more deft at moving from happy to sad WITHIN works. We often then get a broader range of satisfaction, if not through depth of interrogation of a theme and its possibilities for evoking every nuance of a complex emotion, as with Bach (e.g.: Violin Partita No. 2).
So, Enjoy!
General CDs
Music Genres
Bestsellers in General CDs
Debussy: Clair de lune & Other Piano FavouritesRelease date: 2004-05-18; Music CD
Best price: $5.59
Price in other shops:
Andrea Bocelli - My ChristmasAndrea; Release date: 2009-11-03; Music CD
Best price: $7.21
Price in other shops:
The Most Relaxing Classical Music in the UniverseRelease date: 2003-04-08; Music CD
Best price: $6.54
Price in other shops:
Bach: The 6 Unaccompanied Cello SuitesSony; Release date: 2006-06-06; Music CD
Best price: $10.60
Price in other shops:
Andrea Bocelli - The Best of Andrea Bocelli: VivereAndrea; Release date: 2007-10-30; Music CD
Best price: $8.48
Price in other shops:
![Andrea Bocelli: Vivere - Live in Tuscany [Blu-ray] Image](/images/Andrea-Bocelli-Vivere-Live-in-Tuscany-Blu-ray-B001I5M9SC-X.jpg)
Andrea Bocelli: Vivere - Live in Tuscany [Blu-ray]Andrea; Release date: 2009-06-02; DVD
Best price: $17.50
Price in other shops:
Yo-Yo Ma - Mendelssohn: Piano Trios Op 49 Op 66Release date: 2010-02-02; Music CD
Best price: $10.19
Price in other shops:
Il Divo - An Evening With Il Divo-Live In Barcelona (CD/ DVD)Release date: 2009-12-01; Music CD
Best price: $9.99
Price in other shops:
David Garrett - David GarrettGARRETT,DAVID; Release date: 2009-06-02; Music CD
Best price: $6.64
Price in other shops:
The Canadian Tenors - The Canadian TenorsRelease date: 2009-10-26; Music CD
Best price: $10.94
Price in other shops:
Similar CDs
Dowland: Fancyes, Dreams and Spirits - Lute Music, Vol. 1Release date: 2006-06-20; Music CD
Best price: $2.99
Price in other shops:
Early Venetian Lute MusicRamsey; Release date: 2000-02-22; Music CD
Best price: $5.34
Price in other shops:
Weiss: Lute Sonatas, Vol. 6Release date: 2005-06-21; Music CD
Best price: $5.42
Price in other shops:
Weiss: Lute Sonatas, Vol. 8Release date: 2007-01-30; Music CD
Best price: $4.04
Price in other shops:
Weiss: Lute Sonatas, Vol. 9; Nos. 32, 52 and 94Release date: 2008-04-29; Music CD
Best price: $4.29
Price in other shops:
Weiss: Lute Sonatas, Vol 7 - Nos 15 & 48 / BartoWeiss; Release date: 2006-05-16; Music CD
Best price: $1.99
Price in other shops:
Barto, Weiss - Weiss: Sonatas for Lute, Volume 5Release date: 2002-09-17; Music CD
Best price: $5.88
Price in other shops:
Weiss: Sonatas for Lute, Volume 4Release date: 2001-08-21; Music CD
Best price: $5.78
Price in other shops:
Weiss: Sonatas for Lute, Volume 3Release date: 2000-01-25; Music CD
Best price: $4.43
Price in other shops:
Robert Barto - Weiss: Sonatas for Lute, Volume 2Release date: 1999-03-09; Music CD
Best price: $4.66
Price in other shops: