With Melancholy Grace, French harpsichordist Jean Rondeau explores poetic works for keyboard instruments from the 16th and 17th centuries. Rondeau conceived the album as a somber but eloquent dialogue between two distinct sound worlds: Melancholy, conveyed through chromaticism, and melancholy, conveyed through the musical expression of tears and weeping. Rondeau chose a different instrument for each world: a 16th-century Italian virginal for the "Tears" by the likes of Dowland, Bull, Gibbons and Valente, and a modern replica of an 18th-century harpsichord for the "chromatic" pieces by Frescobaldi, Rossi, Luzzaschi and Sweelinck. The album is given special appeal by the choice of instruments: The original virginal, made in Naples in 1527, is one of the oldest surviving keyboard instruments. Its sound has shown Rondeau new interpretative paths - for example, the proximity to the lute, which was also popular at the time. The plucked strings take on an almost vocal component under his hands - generally Rondeau's unmistakable trademark. His previous recordings of works by Bach, Scarlatti, Rameau and others already radiate an unmistakably sensual "sound." Now, with this album, Rondeau opens up a view of the vast panorama of the first harpsichord heyday - entirely in the light of the pensive, lonely lyrical self who revels in melancholy, a feeling into which a dash of sweetness is also mixed in the expressive works.