Duets for Baroque Lute - CD

After enjoying several centuries of sustained popularity and relevance in European musical life, the lute family of instruments was undeniably falling out of prominence by the end of the 17th-century. Long gone were the days when the lute was considered the noblest of instruments, when it was fashionable for monarchs and the nobility to play the lute, and when lutes were 'instrumental' in one of the greatest changes in musical style in history. There were, of course, exceptions: most notable of which are the baroque lute in Central and Eastern Europe, and the baroque mandolino in Italy. Were baroque lute and mandolino ever played together back in the 18th-century? This is debatable: their geographic ranges of wide usage did not overlap, there is no known music for both instruments together, nor are there any accounts of them having been played together. It is, however, not impossible: Italy, though never accepting the baroque lute, was certainly exposed to it. Baroque lute players visited Italy, either to study with Italian masters or for employment; most notably, the great Silvius Leopold Weiss sojourned in Rome between 1710 and 1714, accompanying his employer Prince Alexander Sobiesky of Poland. Whatever the case may have been regarding historic intersection between baroque lute and mandolino, a strong case could be made for their pairing today. This new release features masterful pairings of these two instruments performed by John Schneiderman and Hideki Yamaya.