Cabinet des Delices

For his 'Kabinett der Köstlichkeiten', lutenist Eduardo Egüez has compiled a selection of French lute music, with composer Franz Philipp Le Sage de Richée at its center. Little is known about his life, except that he presumably had to flee France and subsequently found a position in Breslau. He occupies a central place within lute music because he brings together different styles and currents of French lute music and already foreshadows the later international style of composers such as Sylvius Leopold Weiss, Corelli or Händel. His music has only been preserved in his collection Cabinet der Lauten from 1695, from which Egüez performs a suite in b minor. In his preface to this collection, Le Sage de Richée mentions that he was a pupil of Charles Mouton, and he acknowledges the influence that the renowned masters François Dufaut, Denis Gaultier and Jan Antonín Losy von Losinthal had on his work. Egüez has also compiled a suite from each of these four French lute masters, thereby offering the listener a splendid panorama of French lute music in the 17th century.