Bálint Bakfark
Complete Lute Music — LP №5
Dániel Benkő, lute 

 

Bálint Bakfark (1507 — 1576), born in Brassó,
was an outstanding figure of European Renaissance lute playing.
He later went to the court of the János Szapolyai,
Voivod of Transylvania, where he was already known as an eminent virtuoso lutenist.
Like so many scholars and artists of that period, he had fled from
Hungary to escape from the Turks just, before the occupation of Buda in 1541.
From that time on he attended the most distinguished courts of Europe,
spending several years in the service of King Francis I of France,
and later serving at the Cracow court of the Polish King Sigismund Augustine,
but he also spent time at the Vienna residence of Emperor Maximilian.
He died during an epidemic of bubonic plague in Padua, where he had also
become a renowned teacher, as his ornate epitaph bears witness.
It is nowadays easy enough to discover the value of his compositions
from published scores and records, while the appreciations written by his
contemporaries give an idea of his virtuoso, evocative performing style.
Jan Kochanowski's remark has become a sayirig: "After Bakfark, don't evén touch the lute!"
This record is the last in the Complete Bakfark Edition.
The five records include every Bakfark work known and made accessible today:
fantasias, dances and intavolaturas (choral transcriptions). 

 

Tracklist:  
1. VII. fantázia
(Fantasia No. 7)
    Nicolas Gombert:
2. a) Domine si tu es
3. b) Secunda pars: Cumque vidisset
4. Clemens non Papa: Je prens en gré
    Jacques Arcadelt:
5. a) Exaltabo te Domine
6. b) Secunda pars: Domine in voluntate
    Josquin des Prés:
7. a) Qui habitat
8. b) Secunda pars: Non accedat