The Siena Lute Book is the best manuscript source of fifteenth century Italian lute music in existence, and it is kept in the Gemeentemuseum in The Hague. Its creamy white and carefully copied pages yield more than seven score lute compositions, compiled in the last decade of the fifteenth century but belonging to a time about 40 years before. On this Avie album, lutenist Jacob Heringman puts together a winning selection of 26 of these pieces in an order that roughly corresponds to The Siena Lute Book set that he has been touring with for some time.

Jacob Heringman is one of the foremost lutenists of his generation, “a master of his instrument” according to Classical Guitar magazine. He is the lutenist of choice for leading international musicians, including Barbara Bonney, Michael Chance, and The King’singers. His reputation for seeking out rare and unjustly neglected repertoire is well earned: previous solo recordings include the only solo lute CD devoted to Josquin des Prez. A veteran of the recording studio, Jacob appears on over 50 CDs as soloist, collaborator and ensemble member.

A leading vihuela specialist, the Argentinian virtuoso Ariel Abramovich has already devoted two albums to the favourite instrument of the Iberian Renaissance, the first on Arcana (Esteban Daça, El Parnasso, A316, 2002) and the second on Carpe Diem (Diego Pisador, Si me llaman, 2009). For this third instalment he is joined by one of the world’s most respected and innovative solo lutenists, Jacob Heringman, for a vihuela duo project which is the result of years of research and performing. While there is a significant number of publications for two lutes from the sixteenth century, only one of the seven collections for vihuela de mano includes duets, and it is precisely that collection that was the main source of inspiration for this project. The performers, both highly experienced with intabulations of sixteenth-century music, decided to recreate an ‘imaginary’ book of vihuela duets, following the taste and practice of the ancient masters, who through a notation system of ‘numbers’ used to arrange works by the composers they listened to and played. Cifras Imaginarias is the poetic name they have given to an imaginary music collection of vihuela duos of the kind that might have been published in the mid-sixteenth century.

Two decades following his first album of lute intabulations by the renaissance composer Josquin des Prez (the first album of its kind), celebrated lutenist Jacob Heringman returns to this rich but largely neglected part of the repertoire to present a new recording of intabulations for lute and vihuela.