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Robert de Visée was a court musician and composer for Louis XIV and a member of the King’s personal chamber ensemble “La Chambre du Roi” along with Francois Couperin, Marin Marais, and Antoine Forqueray. In 1716 he published his “Pièces de Théorbe” after more than thirty years service in the king’s service. He is documented as performing at the royal bedside. The theorbo was the largest instrument of the lute family in fashion at the end of the XVIIth century. Lavish, dramatic looking, the instrument even today looks somewhat outlandish in the concert hall. But its rich bass range was the cutting edge of instrument technology at the period and it took a key part in continuo ensemble in early baroque composition. The instrument that Fred Jacobs plays was reconstructed from contemporary drawings and one surviving instrument by Michael Lowe the well known English luthier.
This disc is dedicated to Gusta Goldschmidt, a teacher of Fred Jacobs and an inspiration to a whole generation of early music performers in the Netherlands and around the world. For example she performed with distinction (indeed stole the show) at the first Lute Society of Great Britain summer school in 1967!
"Throughout, Jacobs creates a real sense of majesty, with spacious phrasing, sweeping bows and an absolute conviction that this music is worthy of the Sun King [...] I can’t recommend it highly enough [...] There’s simply no one else playing the French repertory to this standard - and it’s a gold standard."
(Simon Heighes for International Record Review, December 2013)
IRR outstanding nomination
"Fred Jacobs brings scholarship to both his writing and his playing, and it’s a treat to spend an hour in his company, with this music. Throw in the recorded sound and this is the next-best thing to having a theorbo player in your bed-chambers. Ah, well: if we can’t be kings, we can at least play royal music on our stereos."
(Brian Reinhart, Music Web International, May 2014)
"Par la subtilité des inégalités rythmiques, l’élégance et la fluidité de sa prosodie, l’interprète montre ici une compréhension intelligente et sensible de l’esthétique baroque française […] Cet album de Fred Jacobs, convaincant et homogène, vient compléter avec pertinence sa discographie. Un album à découvrir."
(Fabienne Bouvet for Classica, February 2014)
"Diese CD ist uneingeschränkt zu empfehlen, bietet sie doch selbst für de Visée-Verhältnisse eherrares Material in hervorragenden, richtiggehend Spaß machenden Interpretationen in einem darüber hinaus noch ansprechendem Klangbild. Was will man mehr?"
(Rainer Aschemeier for The Listener, July 2014)
This disc is dedicated to Gusta Goldschmidt, a teacher of Fred Jacobs and an inspiration to a whole generation of early music performers in the Netherlands and around the world. For example she performed with distinction (indeed stole the show) at the first Lute Society of Great Britain summer school in 1967!
"Throughout, Jacobs creates a real sense of majesty, with spacious phrasing, sweeping bows and an absolute conviction that this music is worthy of the Sun King [...] I can’t recommend it highly enough [...] There’s simply no one else playing the French repertory to this standard - and it’s a gold standard."
(Simon Heighes for International Record Review, December 2013)
IRR outstanding nomination
"Fred Jacobs brings scholarship to both his writing and his playing, and it’s a treat to spend an hour in his company, with this music. Throw in the recorded sound and this is the next-best thing to having a theorbo player in your bed-chambers. Ah, well: if we can’t be kings, we can at least play royal music on our stereos."
(Brian Reinhart, Music Web International, May 2014)
"Par la subtilité des inégalités rythmiques, l’élégance et la fluidité de sa prosodie, l’interprète montre ici une compréhension intelligente et sensible de l’esthétique baroque française […] Cet album de Fred Jacobs, convaincant et homogène, vient compléter avec pertinence sa discographie. Un album à découvrir."
(Fabienne Bouvet for Classica, February 2014)
"Diese CD ist uneingeschränkt zu empfehlen, bietet sie doch selbst für de Visée-Verhältnisse eherrares Material in hervorragenden, richtiggehend Spaß machenden Interpretationen in einem darüber hinaus noch ansprechendem Klangbild. Was will man mehr?"
(Rainer Aschemeier for The Listener, July 2014)