Lex Eisenhardt (Baroque guitar) performs Suite in D Minor by Robert de Visée (1650-1725). This comes vis his Youtube channel. I was listening to lots of Visée this week as I arranged my Sarabande edition from a different suite and loved this video by the excellent Lex Eisenhardt from the Netherlands. Eisenhardt has long been performing on early plucked instruments, such as the vihuela, the baroque guitar, and the 19th-century Romantic guitar. There is something wonderfully plucky and charming about the Baroque guitar. The strums and rhythmic delivery for this repertoire sounds much more idiomatic compared to the modern guitar. It makes so much sense of Visée’s music that can not otherwise be played as if part of the regular Baroque fare.
- 00:04 prelude
- 00:34 allemande
- 02:52 courante
- 04:03 sarabande
- 05:25 gavotte
- 06:15 bourée
- 07:00 menuet 1 and 2
- 09:40 gigue
- 10:59 passacaille
Thanks for posting this. I’ve been listening to different interpretations of this suite as I’m working on learning its components. What I find really interesting is that, when I listen to Julian Bream play it, I can follow along with the score quite easily because he plays exactly what’s on the page. But when I hear people playing it on the Baroque guitar there are so many variations in ornamentation (which I was prepared for from your lessons), rhythms (which surprised me) and even some extra chords and notes. Was improvisation expected of Baroque musicians? Should we emulate Bream or Eisenhardt (if that’s even possible)?
In general, yes, there would have been lots of ornamentation and free embellishment. I think embellishment is a better word than improvisation but that works too.