I�d guess that quite a few people on this list are old enough to have lute LPs. And those of us who are, have probably got (or had) more or less the same ones.
I�ve just dug out my old vinyl recordings; some of them look OK, others look not quite so good. I�ve got Steinberg�s �Clean� � a program for cleaning up old LPs and transferring them to CD. Has anybody else tried this (or similar programs) with their old lute LPs? Perhaps the better recordings have already been reissued as CDs anyway? And I wonder what the consensus now is on those old performances from the 70s and early 80s? There�s been more research into everything since then (I suppose) � the music, lute construction, temperaments, strings. Are these LPs really just a rather dated product of their time? For example, I�ve got an old Hungaraton record of Daniel Benko (trying to look like Frank Zappa on the cover) playing Bakfark. I haven�t listened to this in years but I remember it as being pretty awful. But what about the complete works of Dowland on Florilegeum. Everyone of a certain age must have bought that. I wonder what the five lutenists themselves think of it now? (Maybe this recording is available on CD?) And what about the Ragossnig Archiv Productions of music from different countries? (Very guitaristic, I seem to remember) Or James Tyler�s Saga recordings? Does anyone listen to them? And what about the early recordings of Hopkinson Smith and Paul O�Dette, Michael Schaffer and Eugene Dombois? I�ve used �Clean� to revive some old jazz recordings I used to like and the result has been disappointing and sometimes even depressing. But jazz is different from lute music. ----------------------------------------- Email provided by http://www.ntlhome.com/
