Is it appropriate for Baroque music to be so seductive? A plaintive soprano voice floats above an instrumental composition by Giovanni Girolamo Kapsberger. A passacaglia is underscored by flamenco rhythms. Then, suddenly, the characteristic harmonies and ornaments of Celtic folk music appear. Did this music actually sound like this in early 17th-century Italy? Certainly not. But the performance by Norwegian lutenist and guitarist Rolf Lislevand with his six fellow musicians on their ECM debut album, "Nuove musiche," comes across as an artistic manifesto. Their dynamic and literally never-before-heard interpretations of early Baroque Italian music are intended to grip the audience immediately, as if they were truly 'new music'.
