When this recording was first issued Italian lute music was an area far less generally known than it now is, but though more than a decade has passed the disc remains an outstanding one. The staples of the lute’s repertory are those of dances, solo versions of and variations on songs, intabulations (arrangements) of vocal music (chansons, motets and the like) and fantasias or ricercars. This recording focuses on the last two of these, interrupted by only one dance. The ricercar or fantasia (the terms are virtually synonymous) grew out of the improvised prelude or tastar de corde, as a contrapuntal piece marked by imitative voices. The point (opening motif) was sometimes taken from a work by another composer (Richafort’s chanson De mon triste desplaisir appears here as both Milano’s intabulation and the Fantasia he developed from its opening), but in most cases it was original. The fantasia/ricercar was the first of all purely instrumental forms, independent of the song or dance.
All three composers are among the earliest known lutenist-composers: last year was the quincentenary of Milano’s birth; Capirola’s music survives only in a lovingly hand-written manuscript by one of his pupils – a remarkable rarity, and Spinacino’s Intabulatura de lauto (1507) is the earliest known printed book of lute music. The importance of this repertory is both historical and musical, and no more sensitive, intelligent and persuasive recording of it than this one has yet been made.'