Lute Music by Valentin Bakfark and Matthaeus Waissel. Jacob Heringman.

After the intellectual intensity of Josquin, it is light relief to enjoy the airy Polish dances of Waissel, as they saunter along amongst the more cerebral intabulations of Bakfark. It is unfortunate than one of them is horribly reminiscent of "We shall overcome".

Valentin Bakfark (c.1526/1530-1576) was born in Transylvania, and died of the plague in Padua. He destroyed much of his music before he died, so his surviving output includes only 8 fantasies and 32 intabulations or so. Since Daniel Benko's pioneering recordings in the 1970's, very few lutenists have bothered with Bakfark. His music is difficult to play, sometimes irritatingly so, and giving shape to long, extended works presents a challenge to the performer. Nevertheless Jacob Heringman gives us a good idea why Bakfark enjoyed such a huge reputation during his lifetime. His playing is excellent, and my only cavil would be that occasionally he loses the crispness of Bakfark's most distinctive mannerism - a dotted crotchet followed by two semiquavers.