Elizabeth Kenny - Ars longa - BBC Radio 3 'Record Review'

Lutenist Elizabeth Kenny’s new solo recital mixes old and new music for the theorbo, or chittarone, with the hyper-extended neck and extra octave of bass strings and it turns out to be a brilliant introduction to the instrument. Here’s music by Robert de Visée, one of Louis XIV’s musicians at the Court of Versailles.

<Plays Robert de Visée Prelude in G and Les Sylvains de Mr. Couperin>

It speaks volumes for her playing and for the design of this solo theorbo recital that you scarcely raise an eyebrow when the next thing you hear is utterly modern: Nico Muhly’s Berceuse, with Seven Variations. Kenny achieves similar magic all the way through the album – early seventeenth-century Piccinini meets James MacMillan and there’s a piece inspired in part by funk guitar. The intimate recording means we don’t miss anything of the theorbo’s deeply satisfying depth and range.