Pieces de Theorbe

New release of the theorbe music of baroque French composer Robert de Visee performed by the Dutch lutenist Fred Jacobs.

This new recording of baroque French theorbe music from Louis XIV’s court by Robert de Visee has been several years in the making. A new instrument was commissioned by Fred Jacobs from Michael Lowe, the celebrated English luthier, in 2004 and after a period of settling down the recording was made in 2007.

It provides us with the opportunity of hearing the work of de Visee, a composer well known to guitarists and lutenists alike as the most important French baroque composer for plucked instruments, on an instrument very similar to the one he played for Louis XIV court.

Robert de Visee, whose exact dates of birth and death remain unknown, is one of the most important composers for plucked instruments in France at the end of the 17th century. Almost 200 pièces for guitar, theorbo and lute, as well as many arrangements for these instruments of works by Lully, Marais, Couperin, and Forqueray.

With these last two composers and others he would play in La chambre du Roy to divert the king and among others the Duke of Burgundy and Madame de Maintenon. He also dedicated two books of guitar music to the king.

16 Entrée d’Apollon from Le Triomphe de l’Amour, 1681

18 Assez des pleurs from Bellérophon, 1679

27 La Plainte ou Tombeau de Mesdemoiselles de Visée, Allemande de Mr. Leur Père