Each Friday we select a track from a Naxos Music Group album released twenty years ago to provide the accompaniment for five minutes of your downtime.
This week’s pick from the Dynamic label (CDS517) is Mantovana, a short piece by Italian guitarist/composer Francesco Corbetta. Born around 1615, Corbetta served at a number of European courts, including in England from 1660 to 1670, where Charles II conferred upon him the title of "Gentleman of the Chamber to the Queen". He died in Paris in 1681, when an epitaph in the Mercure galant, signed by a pupil, cited as his most precious virtue the fact that he had made the guitar speak the true language of love, and that during his marvellous performances, pervaded by an almost divine spirit, he had charmed all his listeners – and would have enchanted Death itself if it had had ears.
Mantovana (CDS517)