Toyohiko Satoh VIENNESE LUTE MUSIC

On this release, lutenist Toyohiko Satoh plays music from the court of Vienna from around the year 1700. A special discovery included on this album is the suite by Adam Franz Ginter, who was a famous castrato singer in that time, but also composed some pieces for the lute. This recording is a tribute to this largely forgotten musician who most probably had a short and rather sad life. The following suite by Saint-Luc contains a “tombeau for Francois Ginter” and was composed to lament the early death of this extraordinary singer, lutenist and composer. At Rikkyo University in Tokyo, Satoh studied music history with Tatsuo Minagawa and guitar with Kazuhito Ohosawa. He gave his first guitar recital in the Tokyo Bunka Kaikan concert hall in 1965. At Rikkyo, he also began his studies of the lute. Praised for his “intensity and sense of drama” and “electric tension and rhythmic spring,” he has performed and recorded both solo and with many chamber ensembles, and has been actively composing since 1981.