Looking on youtube for a video of the Earl of Essex Galliard the other night, I came across one by Elizabeth Brown. A fine player, but sounds I never heard from a lute live. I wondered what her recording engineer was thinking. But then I remembered that "her" sound was not completely unlike what I hear on many lute CDs, and it occurs to me that today's recording engineers generally have an odd concept of what a lute should sound like. Primarily, they seem to think it should sound BIG and with the oodles of reverb - as if heard from many feet away in a large and empty catherdral. Harmonia Mundi records Paul O'Dette this way, as do ECM and Naxos Nigel North, Naive Hopkinson Smith, and (not as exaggeratedly) Hyperion Elizabeth Kenny.
Going into my vinyl collection I found that in the past, both Nonesuch and Astree did a much more natural job with Paul O'Dette, Edition Open Window is wonderful with Jurgen Hubscher (and Alfred Gross), and Decca always gave Joe Iadone and Chris Williams a natural sound. So, my appeal is to recording engineers: go into a medium size - or even fairly large - room with a lutenist sometime and listen to the sound he/she produces. Then forget recording in churches or cathedrals and by all means leave all electronic 'enhanements' out of the recording chain. Am I alone in this view? Ned -- To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
