Once again, Cantus is proud to announce a world première. As it already happened with some of our previous CDs (Mascitti, Strozzi’s madrigals, the fortepiano music by Sor and Rodríguez, Kummer, Machaut’s Le Jugement du Roi de Navarre, and Vivaldi op. II with period instruments, to name but a few), our label is rescuing from oblivion not only a repertoire, but this time also an instrument: the Renaissance guitar. Although it already appears in some pieces of our CD C 9605 Schiarazula Marazula, this is the first CD entirely devoted to the 4-course Renaissance guitar. This instrument was probably invented in Spain (some vihuela composers left a few pieces for it, like Mudarra or Fuenllana), but it was in France, under Henri II, that it achieved great popularity, rivalling even with the lute. Between 1551 and 1555 nine books of tablature for guiterne were published in Paris: four by Le Roy, three by Morlaye, one by Brayssing and another one by Gorlier. The three first composers are represented in this recording by a selection of exquisite pieces chosen by our soloist, the American guitarist and lutenist, Michael Craddock, who is at present living in Basel. This delicious repertoire includes demanding fantasies, beautiful intabulations of well known chansons by Certon or Sermissy, and dances of popular origin. All this music revives again in the prodigious hands of Michael Craddock, a sensitive performer gifted with a transparent and clear touch and an amazing technique that allows him both recover all the freshness and naïvety of the easiest dances, and the vertiginous runs and scales of the ornaments and embellishments that make of these works a fascinating repertoire to be discovered by the discerning early music lover.

Michael Craddock, Renaissance guitar (instrument built by Lawrence K. Brown, 1989).