Martin Best
Martin Best, founder of the medieval music ensemble that bears his name, lived the life of a latter-day minstrel. He first learned the craft of music as an apprentice, studying classical guitar with two of the 20th century's greatest masters, Andrés Segovia and John Williams. He spent his journeyman years, however, among the peasants of a rural Spanish village. That part of Best's musical career was devoted to a simple lifestyle and the music of the folk. In that vein, he began a recording career with a wide variety of vocal and instrumental albums ranging across centuries (English popular music from Shakespeare to the 20th century) and across linguistic groups (English, Spanish, French, and Provençal). Yet in 1981, Best narrowed his specialty to the European troubadour traditions, what he had once called his "first love." That's when he formed the Martin Best Medieval Ensemble.
In the 1980s, the Martin Best Medieval Ensemble (and the Martin Best Consort) took England's early music scene by storm with a popular series of recordings for Nimbus Records. Each was an acoustically fresh read on a selection of poets and composers: Guiraut Riquier, Bernart de Ventadorn, Italian and southern French contemporaries of Dante, other troubadours and trouvéres, the Lamento di Tristan, and the Cantigas de Santa Maria. In the meantime, the ensemble presented a series of medieval concert programs for the BBC and debuted in Britain's most prestigious concert venues: Wigmore Hall, the Queen Elizabeth Hall, and the Proms.
© Timothy Dickey /TiVo
Discography
7 album(s) • Sorted by Bestseller
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Thys Yool: A Medieval Christmas
Christmas Music - Released by Nimbus Records on 1 Jan 1988
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Nottamun Town: British and American Folksongs and Ballads
Classical - Released by Revels Records on 1 Mar 2003
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Cantigas of Santa Maria of Alfonso X
Chamber Music - Released by Nimbus Records on 1 Nov 1996
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Göran Fristorp & Martin Best
Folk - Released by Universal Music AB on 1 Jan 1983
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Songs of Carl Michael Bellman
Classical - Released by Nimbus Records on 1 Mar 2012
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
To Carl Michael With Love [Digital] (Digital)
Classical - Released by Parlophone Sweden on 15 Apr 2011
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bernart de Ventadorn: The Testament of Tristan
Classical - Released by Hyperion on 1 Jun 1987
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo