2024 Update

I have just updated a few pages:

  • The Recordings  page now lists all of my CDs with Stradivarius and Magnatune on one page
  • I have now included a link to the booklet of each CD on the dedicated pages.

Here are a couple of reviews that were written since I last updated my web site:

Recent reviews of Vincenzo Capirola – Il piu bel secreto e arte

“His soft, glitsch-free caress of his gut-strung 6-course lute by Klaus Jacobsen has a compelling clarity, and the easy fluency with which he interprets the phrasing and ornamentation of Capirola’s music entices the untiring ear as the naked man offers a flower to a woman in one of Vidal’s sketches.”

Rick Jones, Lute News (of the English Lute Society)

“Mr. Beier does a masterful job of making [the ornaments] sound natural, even integral to the musical texture, Of course, this is greatly aided by his fluid, seemingly effortless technique, and his elegant musical sensibility, which is on display throughout.”

Howard Kadis, Lute Society of America Quarterly

CD Reviews

It’s been a while since I’ve updated my site, and in the meantime several new revews were published. In particular, my recent Dowland CD got a glowing review from Howard Kadis for the Lute Society of America Quarterly:

Summer-Fall 2019, Quarterly of the Lute Society of America

And the Bach CD of the French Suites was reviewed in Lauten-Info of the German Lute Society by Marcus Lutz:

A few more new reviews from Italian publications are linked to in Recordings

Review in Critica Classica – August 2018

Review of J.S.Bach, French Suites in Critica Classica – August 2018

“Il risultato complessivo […] si concretizza in un disco di elevatissimo valore storico-musicale, che fa emergere l’assoluta bravura di Beier come interprete, evidenziando nel contempo la notevole duttilità legata a buona parte della produzione cameristica bachiana.”

Read the entire review

Review in GothicNetwork, March – April 2018

Review of J.S.Bach, French Suites, by Piero Barbareschi in GothicNetwork, March – April 2018

“Paul Beier, musicista di razza e di grande sensibilità… La struttura frammentata delle suites consente di scoprire con ogni danza atmosfere e stati d’animo differenti: meditativi, sognanti, bucolici, malinconici o danzanti. Quasi ottanta minuti di musica straordinaria, svelata con grande perizia da Beier che ci pone ancora una volta, stupiti e quasi intimoriti, di fronte all’unmensità ed alla bellezza dell’universo bachiano.”

Read the entire review

Review in Diapason, March 2018

Five Diapason. Review of J.S.Bach, French Suites, by Philippe Ramin in Diapason, March 2018

“Quelques choix d’interprétation audacieux… étonnent mais ne
gâchent jamais le plaisir de l’écoute, car le phrasé captive sans cesse et
bénéficie d’un brillant sens de l’ornementation aux reprises… Un tour de force qui donne de fraîches couleurs aux plus fameuses des Suites pour le clavier.”

Read the entire review