Artist: Jean Rondeau
Title: Melancholy Grace
Year Of Release: 2021
Label: Warner Classics
Genre: Classical
Quality: 24bit-192kHz FLAC (tracks+booklet)
Total Time: 01:18:33
Total Size: 2.88 GB

Tracklist:

1. Frescobaldi: Toccate e partite d'intavolatura, Libro II: Toccata settima (5:04)
2. Di Roma: Fantaisie de Monsieur de Lorency (3:23)
3. Rossi: Passacaille del seigneur Louigi (2:16)
4. Strozzi: Capricci da sonare cembali, et organi, Op. 4, Pt. 1: Toccata quarta per l’elevatione (5:54)
5. Sweelinck: Fantasia cromatica, SwWV 258 (9:27)
6. Picchi: Intavolatura di balli d’arpicordo: No. 5, Ballo alla polacha con il suo saltarello (2:28)
7. Bull: Melancholy Pavan (6:42)
8. Bull: Melancholy Galliard (3:08)
9. Anonymous: Pavana lachrymae, WV 106 (Formerly Attributed to Heinrich Scheidemann) (6:10)
10. Picchi: Intavolatura di balli d’arpicordo: No. 5, Ballo alla polacha con il suo saltarello (Alternate Version I) (0:50)
11. Luzzaschi: Il transilvano, dialogo sopra il vero modo di sonar organi & istromenti da penna, Pt. 1: Toccata del quarto tuono (2:53)
12. Storace: Selva di varie compositioni d'intavolatura per cimbalo ed organo: No. 22, Recercar di legature (5:02)
13. Frescobaldi: Toccate e partite d'intavolatura, Libro I: Toccata quarta (5:48)
14. Frescobaldi: Toccate e partite d'intavolatura, Libro I: Toccata prima (6:33)
15. Picchi: Intavolatura di balli d’arpicordo: No. 5, Ballo alla polacha con il suo saltarello (Alternate Version II) (0:53)
16. Valente: Intavolatura de cimbalo, Book I: Sortemeplus, con alcuni fioretti (Sortez mes pleurs) (3:20)
17. Gibbons: Fitzwilliam Virginal Book: Pavana No. 292 in A Minor (3:31)
18. Dowland: Lachrimae, or Seven Tears: No. 7, Lachrimae verae (5:25)

Melancholy Grace is a poetic collection of keyboard music from the 16th and 17th centuries by composers from Italy, the Netherlands, England and Germany, including Frescobaldi, Luigi Rossi, Picchi, Luzzaschi, Sweelinck, Dowland, Bull and Gibbons. The French harpsichordist Jean Rondeau has conceived the album as a sombre, but eloquent dialogue between two contrasting voices: melancholy conveyed through chromaticism and melancholy conveyed through the musical expression of tears and weeping. Each voice finds expression through a different instrument: a 16th century Italian virginal (a compact harpsichord) for the ‘tears’ and a modern replica of an 18th century harpsichord for the ‘chromatic’ pieces.