Melancholy Grace is a poetic collection of keyboard music from the 16th and 17th centuries by composers from Italy, the Netherlands, England and Germany, including Frescobaldi, Luigi Rossi, Picchi, Luzzaschi, Sweelinck, Dowland, Bull and Gibbons. The French harpsichordist Jean Rondeau has conceived the album as a sombre, but eloquent dialogue between two contrasting voices: melancholy conveyed through chromaticism and melancholy conveyed through the musical expression of tears and weeping. Each voice finds expression through a different instrument: a 16th century Italian virginal (a compact harpsichord) for the ‘tears’ and a modern replica of an 18th century harpsichord for the ‘chromatic’ pieces.

Claire Lefilliâtre, soprano; Bruno Bonhoure, ténor; Serge Goubioud, ténor; Marco Horvat, basse; Sophie Watillon, dessus de viole; Friederike Heumann, dessus de viole & lirone; Françoise Enock, violone; Nanja Breedijk, harpe double; Joël Grare & Michèle Claude, percussions; Jean-Luc Tamby, colascione, guitare baroque, cetterone; Vincent Dumestre, colascione, théorbe, guitare baroque; Participation au madrigal O dolorosa sorte: Damien Guillon, alto; Anne Marie Lasla, basse de viole;