Composer: John Bull, John Dowland, Girolamo Frescobaldi, Orlando Gibbons, Luzzasco Luzzaschi, Giovanni Picchi, Laurencini da Roma, Luigi Rossi, Bernardo Storace, Gregorio Strozzi, Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck, Antonio Valente
Performer: Jean Rondeau
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Erato
Release: 2021
Size: 2.87 GB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
01. Frescobaldi: Toccata Settima
02. Roma: Fantaisie de Mr. de Lorency
03. Rossi, Luigi: Passacaille del sign[or]Louigi
04. Strozzi: Toccata quarta
05. Sweelinck: Fantasia Chromatica a 4 in D minor, SwWV258
06. Picchi: Ballo alla Polacha
07. Bull: Melancholy Pavan
08. Bull: Melancoly Galliard
09. anon.: Pavana lachrymae, WV 106 (Formerly Attributed to Heinrich Scheidemann)
10. Picchi: Ballo alla Polacha
11. Luzzaschi: Toccata del Quarto Tono
12. Storace: Recercar di legature
Frescobaldi: Toccate e partite d’intavolatura di cimbalo et organo, libro primo
13. Toccata quarta
14. Toccata prima
15. Picchi: Ballo alla Polacha
16. Valente: Sortemeplus con alcuni fioretti
17. Gibbons: Pavana No. 292
18. Dowland: Lachrimae Verae
Melancholy Grace is a poetic collection of keyboard music from the 16th and 17th centuries by composers from Italy, the Netherlands, England and Germany, including Frescobaldi, Luigi Rossi, Picchi, Luzzaschi, Sweelinck, Dowland, Bull and Gibbons. The French harpsichordist Jean Rondeau has conceived the album as a sombre, but eloquent dialogue between two contrasting voices: melancholy conveyed through chromaticism and melancholy conveyed through the musical expression of tears and weeping. Each voice finds expression through a different instrument: a 16th century Italian virginal (a compact harpsichord) for the ‘tears’ and a modern replica of an 18th century harpsichord for the ‘chromatic’ pieces.