Лютневая Музыка XVI-XVII Веков

Released by the Melodiya label in 1988, this record is a quintessential example of a deliberate musical forgery that fooled the public for decades. Vladimir Vavilov, a Soviet guitarist and composer, originally attributed these compositions to various Renaissance and Baroque lutenists, including Francesco da Milano and John Dowland. His intent was to breathe life into the lute repertoire, which was largely ignored in the Soviet Union at the time, by presenting 'discovered' works that felt authentic to the period.

The album holds a unique place in music history due to the most famous piece in the collection, the 'Ave Maria,' which Vavilov famously attributed to Giulio Caccini. The design and presentation of the record leaned heavily into the Romanticized, scholarly aesthetic of the late Soviet period, utilizing formal, archival-style cover art to lend an air of legitimacy to the compositions. Following Vavilov's death in 1973, musicologists eventually deconstructed the works and identified them as modern pastiches, cementing the record's legacy as one of the most successful and beloved musical hoaxes of the twentieth century.