Lislevand puts modern twists on “Nuove Musiche”
There’s a new name nestled among the superstar artists atop the Billboard’s Classical Chart: Rolf Lislevand.
His latest album, “Nuove Musiche” (ECM New Series, March 3), features the Norwegian lutenist/guitarist joined by a host of notable colleagues from the early-music community, including percussionist Pedro Estevan and harpist/vocalist Arianna Savall (the daughter of viola da gamba virtuoso Jordi Savall and vocalist Monserrat Figueras).
The album’s title plays with listeners’ expectations. The musicians delve into some very early music: 400-year-old works by Girolamo Frescobaldi, Giovanni Girolamo Kapsberger and others — that is to say, the composers who flourished in the wake of the 17th-century nuove musiche (”new music”) movement. But Lislevand and his colleagues extend new music’s meaning even further by introducing 21st-century twists.
As Lislevand notes, “As far as I’m concerned, reconstruction is not really interesting at all. Do we really want to act as if we hadn’t heard any music between 1600 and the present day? I think that would be dishonest.”
The musicians use the older pieces as launching points for such modern-sounding improvisations as two flamenco-drenched Passacaglias andaluz, a bebop-inflected double bass solo in the Passacaglia cantata and a Passacaglia celtica certain to please any Irish music fan.
Other musicians on the recording include Bjorn Kjellemyr on colascione lute and double bass, organist/clavichord player Guido Morini, Marco Ambrosini on Swedish stringed instrument the nyckelharpa and Thor-Harald Johnsen on the chitarra battente guitar.
Reuters/Billboard
