Let me declare this by far the best account of this music to date.
Not only is Lindberg's own contributions exemplary in unaffected,
stylistic felicity and tone, adored with tasteful embellishments
(as is that of Sparf), but the use of period instruments and discreet
lozenging of notes helps in keeping the lute audible at all times....It is
difficult to see how they might be better..
Grammophone
The lute works of Vivaldi are well-trodden territory but no
one has yet travelled over it so beguilingly as Jakob Lindberg with
Nils-Erik Sparf (violin), Monica Huggett (viola d'amore) and the
Drottningholm Baroque Ensemble.
Critics Choice/Grammophone
This recording of the complete works for lute and strings by Antonio Vivaldi is the first one which uses an arch lute. The music had usually been recorded on much smaller instruments and played an octave higher, but for that register Vivaldi wrote concertos for another plucked instrument, the mandolin. Nowadays most experts agree that performing them in the lower octave on an arch lute or on a German baroque lute is what Vivaldi intended. The four works on this recording are; Concerto in D major for two violins, lute and bass, Trio in G minor for violin, lute and bass, Trio in C major for violin, lute and bass and Concerto in D minor for viola d'amore, lute and strings.