Piva | Renaissance song CD by Duo LiveOak

“…a captivating performance by Duo LiveOak…They are a very endearing and multi-talented duo. Nancy Knowles projects a warm, friendly personality to the audience and has a beautiful voice particularly suited to their repertoire–and in addition to that, she is a fine poet as well. Frank Wallace is a very confident, capable performer, at home equally on the lute and guitar; he is a sensitive musician and composer and a good baritone as well. In this performance, their ensemble was very tight.”    – Mark Switzer, Soundboard

“Implicit in the lute song repertoire is an intimacy of performance and a personal striving to reach out to the listener. In this well-chosen program Nancy Knowles and Frank Wallace give the listener a pleasing privacy of expression that is touching and eloquent. This is easier said than done, for the music’s spareness masks the demands made on the musicians… This music must, of course, be clearly articulated and have rhythmic shape, but it suffers if it is too angular and punctuated. Knowles and Wallace, who have performed together since 1976, use a subtle range of attack, decay, and articulation that is immediately attractive and yields depth on repeated hearings… The program is extremely well sequenced, beginning with the Spanish pieces and ending with a very beautiful group of five Verdelot settings interweaved with lute pieces by Francesca da Milano…”   – Catherine Moore, American Record Guide