John Johnson (?1545-?1594)
"Flatt Pavan", Euing lute book, f. 8v
"Flatt Galliard", Dd.2.11, f. 1v-2
"Carman’s Whistle", Dd. 5.78.3., f.48v
"Delight Pavan"
"Delight Galliard", Margaret Board Lute Book, f. 6v-7v
"Quadro Pavan", Dd. 9.33, f. 93v
"Johnson’s Jewel", Dd.2.11, f. 99
"Without title" (Galliard), Dd. 5.78.3., f. 43
"Gathering of peascods", Margaret Board Lute Book, f. 26
"A Ground", Wickhambrook, f. 17v
"Passingmeasures Pavan", Dd.2.11, f. 62v
"Good night and good rest", Dd.2.11, f. 86

Anthony Holborne (?1545-1602)
Pavan, British Library, London, MS 31392, f. 17v
"New Year’s Gift", Marsh Lute Book, f. 118
"The Countess of Pembroke’s Funerals", Euing lute book, f. 18
"Fantasia I", Dd.2.11, f. 39
"Heigh ho holiday", Dd. 5.78.3., f. 34v
Pavan, Dd.2.11, f. 88
"Galliard to the Pavan last before", Dd.2.11, f. 89
"Last will and testament", Dd.2.11, f. 57v-58
"Fantasia II", British Library, London MS 1353 (Hirsh lute book), f. 64
"Almaine", Dd.2.11, f. 70
"Galliard", Dd. 5.78.3., f. 28
"Fantasia", Hirsh lute book, f. 65
"Heres Paternus", Euing lute book, f. 19
"Muy Linda", Dd. 5.78.3., f. 34v
"As it fell on a holiday", Dd. 5.78.3., f. 5v

Yavor Genov, luth (Luth 7 cordes de Ivo Magherini après Georg Gerle, Innsbruck, 1550 (Vienne))

Orpheus Anglorum, littéralement "Orphée anglais" en hommage à Orphée le Thrace qui possédait, selon la légende, le pouvoir magique de séduire les êtres par son chant et sa poésie. Assurément, cet opus nous séduit, en premier lieu par la richesse des compositions de ces luthistes parmi les plus représentatifs de l’ère élisabéthaine, Johnson et Holborne, et deuxièmement par la qualité de l’interprétation du luthiste, Yavor Genor. Nous sommes là en présence des pionniers de la musique Renaissance qui engendrera un peu plus tard les fastes et la grandeur de la musique baroque. Pourtant, l’austérité de la période élisabéthaine ne se prêtait guère aux innovations musicales des musiques de cour aux codes si bien établis. Jonhson et Holborne, par leurs pavanes, gaillardes et autres allemandes, s’en évadent allègrement par de riches mélodies, souvent graves et mélancoliques, d’une grande pureté harmonique. Ecoutez «Passingmeasures Pavan» de Johnson ou «Muy Linda» d’Holborne pour en être convaincu. Le luthiste maintenant, déjà remarqué dans Kapsberger et Zamboni, Yavor Genov offre une interprétation aérienne et subtile, caractérisée par la délicatesse du trait et la précision du jeu, nous offrant un nouvel éclairage sur cette musique Renaissance souvent considérée, à tort, comme ennuyeuse. Attention : Pépite! (Philippe Zanoly)

John Johnson and Antony Holborne share much in common, in their music and probably career, but this disc, in setting their work side by side, reveals their individual style and approach to the instrument. It is assumed that they both were born in the 1540s, without 6hn authoritative record, but their work in the royal court of the 1560s is attested. Johnson made his career as an accomplished performer, while Holborne’s energies were focused on writing for the instrument. In the case of Johnson, the pavans, galliards and grounds recorded by Yavor Genov incorporate an amalgam of native and foreign (especially Italian) elements. His works show the English taste for crossrelations, surprising harmonic and tonal relationships and, above all, variation. However, like Holborne, he developed the form of the pavan during the course of his career, endowing it with increasing richness of ornamentation and expression, to be enjoyed in full in the melancholy undertow of the Passingmeasures Pavan. Holborne’s lute music is still more painstakingly elaborate, designed perhaps less for public show than private reflection, to give as much pleasure to the musician as to his courtly audience. With two albums on Brilliant, of music by Kapsberger (BC94409) and Zamboni (BC94767), the young Bulgarian lutenist has introduced himself to international audiences and proved to be a thoroughly sympathetic interpreter of this idiom which trades on subtle intimacies of phrase, decoration and inflection. ‘Top-level execution,’ remarked the Italian Folk Music Bulletin of the Zamboni album, ‘which both conveys a flavour of the time, and enables us to discover the music of a lesser-known 18thcentury composer: another great strength of Yavor Genov.’