Weiss: Complete London Manuscript / Cardin

Michel Cardin

Composed by: Weiss, Silvius Leopold

Silvius Leopold Weiss (1687–1750) was renowned in his day as one of Europe’s most proficient lutenists.Over his lifetime he composed over 200 sonatas, and, remarkably, many of them remain conserved – and unplayed – to this day, the manuscripts to be found in various libraries scattered across Europe.The London Manuscript, held in the British Library since 1877, contains a staggering 26 solo sonatas as well as other works.The sonatas are structured like Baroque suites, normally comprising six individual movements, lively gigues and courantes as well as allemandes and slow sarabandes.Often compared to Bach’s lute music, there is a wealth of originality here not always found in Bach’s works due to Weiss’s deep understanding of the instrument.Michel Cardin has devoted his career to painstakingly reconstructing the London Manuscript, bringing the various fragments to a playable standard and carefully analyzing which segments belong where.The complete collection, encapsulating 12 CDs of highly authentic recordings, has been brought together in this Brilliant Classics box.

Price: $72.98

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