Nigel North is an esteemed lutenist perhaps best known outside England for his work as a member of the group
Romanesca with
Andrew Manze and the late
John Toll. Nigel North: Baroque Lute was his solo debut album for Linn and remains a highly noteworthy one. The
Johann Sebastian Bach Chaconne from the D minor Violin Sonata, BWV 1004, is
North's own transcription; the recording offered is his
Bach on the Lute box set is a different recording, made somewhat later.
North likewise transcribes
Vivaldi's Violin Concerto in F, Op. 3/9, mainly from
Vivaldi's original, but with some ornaments and other elements borrowed from
Bach's keyboard version. Although
Bach and
Vivaldi get top billing here, it is really the pieces of
Sylvius Leopold Weiss that serve as the main attraction.
North performs two of
Weiss' most easily characterized pieces, his Sonata "L'Infidèle" in A minor and the Tombeau for Count Logy. "L'Infidèle" signifies the Turks (infidels) and
Weiss composed this sonata in Vienna in about 1719, when memories of the Turkish siege of Vienna of 1683 were still fresh in the minds of many. It is rich with exotic turns of phrase associated with the noisy Janissary bands that trotted on behind the Turkish cavalry, and has a special significance for
North, as this was a piece initially inspired him to take up the lute.
North extracts the maximum amount of expressiveness from
Weiss' Tombeau for Count Logy, a memorial written in honor of an expert amateur lutenist known to
Weiss and other professional lute players of the time; this serves as the most obviously moving and deeply felt music in this collection.