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2008. Musique pour le Roi
"After his jouney to Italy „Che Soávita“ Joachim Held now stops with his Solo Recital „Musique pour le Roi“ at the Houses of Nobility in France of the Baroque. For this he chose Suites of composers like Jacques Gallot, Charles Mouton and Robert de Visée, who were high esteemed Lutenists who worked near to the highest Nobility like Louis XIV. Since the recordings of Helds teacher, at the latest, Hopkinson Smith these names are known not only to Early Music Enthusiasts. Thank to Joachim Held, who made the lute more popular in the last years, the worth of this precious music will be increased many times.
Superficially the dances follow the normal Suite. Even in the old recordings of Konrad Ragossnig and Anthony Bailes, one could could imagine the internal gestures of this „sound microcosm“, but Held fulfills the concentrated Rhethoric with a variety of Colours and Variability which is only rarely heard. With the Theorbo and 11 - course Baroque lute, which both are from the workshop of Klaus Jacobsen in London, he plays with a admiringly clearness for the contrasts of tension and intensity, which point out the strictness and dignity, Contemplation and Calmness in perfection."
Rondo Magazin, Guido Fischer - October 2008
"In his series of publications the award winning Joachim Held devoted himself to the different traditions of compositions for the family of the luteinstruments: Works from Germany and Habsburg play an eminent role, lately Held worked on the italian repertoire. Now he devotes himself to a very special repertoire – the compositions in the area of the french King Louis XIV. for the Lute. The rich tradition is based on experiments with the tuning of the lute and a creative stylistic treatment of the possibilities of the instrument.
Ennemond Gaultier (1575 – 1651) was one of the moulding personalties, followed by a.o. Charles Mouton (1617 – before 1699) or Jacques Gallot (? – 1690). These Masters brought out the „stile brisé“: finely woven compositions combined with a complex technique of composition, the melodic lines are interrupted. An artificial Mixing of the voices increase the impression of complexity and gives the dance movements an artificial character.
Very successful
Also in this repertoire Joachim Held moves very secure and prudently: He presents himself technically strong, precise and with equally beautiful and reserved. The single movements are not shaped to strong characters but embedded in the whole texture. His fine sound - production shapes the works with not too much energy – which seems to be the perfectly right way. Because the rewarding pieces, which are more reflective then full of temperament need a fine treatment, which Held – never an interpret with too strong pressure – follows all the way through this recording. I addition to that the production was recorded with a very clear sound, which reflects perfectly the structure of the music and every register of the used instruments.
All in all this is a very fine interpretation of this special repertoire, which probably will take an important part in the Discographie of Joachim Held who follows pass as interpret in a convincing manner."
Klassik.com, Dr. Matthias Lange - August 2008
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French Lute Music of the Baroque
(Release Date: 2008)
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2007. Che Soavità
"... Held's expressive playing is well suited to this repertoire: a combination of opposites, of strength and delicacy, simplicity and sublety. Particular noteworthy is his interpretation of Castaldi's Tasteggio soave, which is hyperbolically described in the sleeve notes as perhaps one of the most exciting chitarrone compositions."
Early Music Review, August 2007
"... Again Joachim Held proves, what was already shown in his previous recordings: His technical basis is superior. Convincing fluency, perfect sound fulfill all wishes. Strong dynamic contrasts of the right hand allow a lot of variation. He takes care of the freedom in the Toccatas and by these elements creates an intensive interpretatoric tension."
Klassik.com, July 2007 / Dr. Matthias Lange
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Italian Lute Music of the Baroque
(Release Date: 2007)
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2006. German Lute Music
"Joachim Held is currently considered a star in the world of Early Music… No Festival can be without him and thanks to him the awareness of the lute has considerably grown. What he gets from the instrument is truly astonishing and sounds everything but pedantically old-fashioned."
Böblinger Kreizeitung, June 2006
"... With the present programme Joachim Held, however, proves convincingly that next to Bach and his well-known colleague Sylvius Leopold Weiss there were other masters of the lute who reward the interest for them with glorious music."
Klassik-heute.com, June 2006
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German Lute Music of the Baroque
(Release Date: 2006)
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2006. Delightful Lute-Pleasure
"... a busy continuo player. Held is therefore an expansive musical imagination: he deploys those distinctive stylistic traits that are the lifeblood of this music with the utmost taste (especially the stile brisée treatment of not only chords but intervals and the subtle inégales) and suggests orchestral colours with ease."
International Record review, April 2006
"The recordings prove the incredible richness and stylistic range of this intimate music. True, one needs to give on to "music coming from silence". The span of expression inside, the corresponding parts, the humour and the melancholy are so close next to each other. To make them visible, without falling into the trap of wrong dramatising, is the all-decisive art of the player. Held manages this with mastery; his dreamlike secureness of playing with the musical time is without comparison. The calm of the beat guaranties the inner dramatisation in its most beautiful way."
Musikforum, March 2006
"Courageous music making, cheerfully interpreted, it is literally a delight to listen to these recordings."
Lauten, February 2006 (Deutsche Lautengesellschaft)
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Baroque Lute music from
the lands of the Habsburgs
(Release Date: 2006)
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2005. Lute Music of the Renaissance
"The playing of Joachim Held is characterised by a lucid and pronounced shaping of sound. To give transparency to the polyphonic development and the desire to shape the melodies intensively can be felt as the aim of the interpreter. His artistic expression aims more at making the structures of the music audible than a mere virtuosic playing…. The listener is taken along into a period, which is particularly worth being visited from the perspective of plucking instrumental music. The quality of sound positively completes this successful portrait of this part of lute music."
Concertino, February 2006
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The Schele Manuscript Hamburg, 1619
(Release Date: 2005)
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2004. Nach willen dein
"With the German lute player Joachim held there seems to build up a successor of Hopkinson Smith. With outstanding technical abilities, lucid clarity of playing and an extraordinary imaginary power of interpretation in his recording of German Renaissance lute music a three stared constellation of lute virtues is shining."
Franz Szabo, May 2004
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Deutsche Lautenmusik der Renaissance
(Release Date: 2004)
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1996. I grandi liutisti Milanesi del Cinquecento
"... Joachim Held's playing is a real pleasure to listen to. He brings out the character of each piece, from the fluid improvisatory virtuosy of Francesco's Fantasiasand ricer-cars, to the more formally structured fantasias of Paladino, and the rhythmic vitality and energy of Borrono's dance forms. Throughout this recording Joachim Held makes effective use of tonal and dynamic contrast and shows excellent control of tempo and rubato without ever sounding self - indulgent. In the contrapunctual works he shows an impressive control of the different voices of a composition - demonstrated to particular good effect in Paladino's intabulation of "Anchor che col partire" in which the part writing of the underlying madrigal is never less than crystal clear ..."
Lute Society (of England), March 1998
"Joachim Held has a refreshing and virtuosic manner to approach this music, probably comparable to Paul O' Dette's playing. He doesn't indulge in the lute players' caprice to play every harmony with an arpeggio slowing down and putting a veil on the flow of the music. Instead he chooses lively tempi, doesn't consider the word virtuoso as a devil's creation from the 19th century and shapes these master works he is dealing with, consistently and in a transparent way. Being played legato, not staccato, the melodies sound and thereby can be followed through the plait of voices and accompanied on their way by the listener."
Gitarre und Laute, February 1997
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Great Milanese Lutenists of
the Sixteenth Century
(Release Date: 1996)
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Miscellaneous
"With the partly dissonant 'Toccata cromatica" or the rhythmically varying "Partite sopra la Follia" by Allessandro Piccini, Held shows then how differentiated also the darker and louder sounding theorbo can sound - if the player masters, as he does here, to emotionally shape the work with small retardations and frequent change of colours."
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
"...the stylised dance suites and partitas of the late Baroque period also sparkle with enjoyment of masterful virtuosic playing and in the slow parts, the sarabandes, Joachim Held impresses with his concentrated composure with which he allows the harmonies to fade out linking them in delicately woven transitions and decorations."
Lindauer Zeitung
"...The word virtuoso fully expresses what Joachim Held is: he is a master of his art..."
Mitteldeutsche Zeitung
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