Jakob Lindberg - Weiss: Lute Music, Vol. 2 (2009)

This is now the third disc I have heard by the master lutenist Jakob Lindberg of the eloquent music of Sylvius Weiss. Weiss sweetly combines elegance and sentiment in a manner that is both intellectually and sensually satisfying. To my ears, Lindberg portrays the music perfectly, the sensitive Sarabande in the Sonata in C as well as the ensuing minuet, the tension of the opening of the Tombeau sur la Mort de M. Comte de Logy as well as the devastatingly sober theme. The Tombeau is an almost 12-minute piece at a tempo that crawls rather than walks, and yet it holds the attention. It also makes one wonder when the practice of marking the death of a celebrated person with original music also died, and why. I heartily recommend the two Weiss discs by Lindberg on BIS and the one on DUX. The competition is still largely the much more extensive series on Naxos by Robert Barto, who is recorded less closely than is Lindberg, and who to me is a shade less effective.