19TH CENTURY GUITAR MUSIC GIULIANI LEGNANI SOR COSTE ANELLI AGUADO LUIGI ATTADEMO historical guitars Giuseppe Anelli 19th century Fernando Sor 1778-1839 Sonatina world premiere recording Introdution et Variations sur un 1. Largo – Allegro 6’34 Thême de Mozart Op.9 (guitar Gaetano Guadagnini II, 1851#) 15. Introduction et Thême 3’02 16. Variation I 1’06 Mauro Giuliani 1781-1829 17. Variation II: Mineur 1’57 Rossiniana No.1 Op.119 18. Variation III 1’09 2. Introduzione: Andantino 4’58 19. Variation IV: Più Mosso 0’45 3. Andante Grazioso 2’33 20. Variation V: Più Mosso 1’09 4. Maestoso 1’35 5. Moderato 3’04 La Despedida, Fantasie No.6 Op.21 6. Allegro Vivace 3’04 21. Andante - Allegretto 5’38 (guitar Gennaro Fabricatore, 1832#) (guitar René Lacôte, ca.1830#) Luigi Rinaldo Legnani 1790-1877 Dioniso Aguado 1784-1849 Capricci Op.20 Le Fandango Varié Op.16 7. No.2 – Allegro 0’54 22. Adagio 2’06 8. No.4 – Allegretto 0’51 23. Allegro vivace 4’32 9. No.7 – Prestissimo 1’22 24. Allegro 1’23 10. No.15 – (Allegro) 1’11 (guitar Etienne Laprevotte, ca.1840*) 11. No.19 – Allegretto grazioso 1’52 12. No.22 – Adagio 2’47 Napoleon Coste 1805-1883 13. No.24 – Allegro Molto 1’10 Le Tournoi, Fantasie chevaleresque Op.15 14. No.29 – Prestissimo 0’40 25. Introduction 2’05 (guitar Johann Anton Stauffer 26. Allegro Maestoso 9’09 “Legnani Model”, ca.1845*) (guitar eptacorde René Lacôte ex-Napoleon Coste, 1855*) * Giovanni Accornero Collection # Luigi Attademo Collection Luigi Attademo historical guitars 19th Century Guitar Music with the famous Giovan Battista in the second half of the 1700s. Towards the end of the 18th century musical instruments and approaches to One of the Italians to meet with particular acclaim in those years was unquestionably interpretation both underwent major transformations. Certain instruments that had Mauro Giuliani, who in Vienna as early as 1808 was considered not only the most been particularly important in the music of earlier periods became obsolete, or even important guitarist, but in general one of the city’s outstanding musicians. disappeared, while others were gradually modified. Between 1770 and the end of A highly versatile composer, he revealed remarkable skill in the Pot-Pourri genre, the century this was certainly the case of the guitar, which changed shape, adopted a consummate example of which are the Rossiniane. Written in 1820, the first piece single strings, abandoned the double string tuning typical of baroque instruments and is based on themes from Rossini’s operas Otello, Italiana in Algeri and Armida. The introduced the sixth string. The outcome of all of this was what Carulli in his Metodo guitar used to play the Rossiniane was built by Gennaro Fabbricatore, the Neapolitan described as the “guitare française ou italienne”. luthier who had supplied Giuliani himself with an instrument, dated 1809. In During the first decades of the 1800s, the art of the luthier underwent further Vienna another important musician was Luigi Legnani, one of the foremost virtuoso developments, giving rise to various schools that in their turn embodied different guitarists, who worked alongside the city’s greatest luthier, Johann Georg Stauffer, conceptions of the instrument leading to divergences in construction, aesthetics and an outstanding innovator and experimenter whose work was later continued by his sound. son Johann Anton. The capricci Op.20, a synthesis of his musical style, are full of The technical innovations introduced by the great guitarist-composers of the virtuoso passages and feature a delightful melodic vein that clearly derives from the period paved the way for widespread experimentation, the fruit of transformations in bel canto tradition. musical taste. The Spanish composer Fernando Sor was in some respects a rival of Giuliani’s, Such is the background that has inspired the selection of works presented in this non only on account of the fame he achieved in various European cities (London recording with the aim of providing listeners with a representative overview of the and Paris, in particular), but also in relation to the original approach he had to way the guitar developed during the first half of the 19th century. the instrument, including certain of its constructional features. In the Metodo he The performance of these particular works on period instruments of the sort that published in 1830, he describes working with the great French luthier René Lacôte, the great guitarist-composers of the time would have played should contribute to among others, whom he found to have “not only talent”… but also the rare quality deeper understanding of the styles and sound quality typical of guitar playing during “of not being rigid when faced with rational arguments”. those years. Sor did not write a great deal of music, but his works always reveal a wealth of The collection begins with a hitherto unrecorded work, the Sonatina by Joseph harmony and particular formal balance. The pieces included in this recording are Anelli, a guitarist and composer from Turin who probably published these pieces in the Fantasia Op.21 and the Variations Op.9: fine examples of his true style, with its 1809. Only a few of Anelli’s works have actually come down to us, but the modest implicit reference to Mozart and Haydn as sources of inspiration. documentary evidence pertaining to his life reveals him to have enjoyed considerable His fellow countryman and friend was Dionisio Aguado, who was in Paris during success first in Paris, and then in England. His music is played here on a guitar built in those same years. His renown as a composer is less widespread than that of Sor, Turin by Gaetano Il Guadagnini, the great heir to the tradition of luthiers that began perhaps because he spent much of his life writing a Metodo (1849) that embodies not only a synthesis of his technical vision of the instrument, but also an aesthetics of La musica per Chitarra nel secolo 19° sound and an approach to interpretation that are distinctly modern in concept. In the La fine del Settecento rappresentò un momento di grandi trasformazioni non solo 1843 edition of the Metodo, Aguado is portrayed holding a guitar made by Etienne per la letteratura musicale, ma anche per gli strumenti. Alcuni di essi, che ricoprirono Laprevotte, the French luthier who had been a contemporary of Lacôte. His Fandango grande importanza nella musica dei periodi precedenti, non solo divennero obsoleti, Op.6, played here on a guitar by Laprevotte, speaks for the influence of Spanish folk ma addirittura scomparvero. Altri, si trasformarono progressivamente. È il caso della music on the guitar style of the early 1800s, and is distinctly reminiscent of the famous chitarra, che tra il 1770 e la fine del secolo XVIII , cambiò aspetto, adottò le corde Fandango that Boccherini included in his Quintetto per chitarra e archi G448. singole, abbandonando l’accordatura a corde doppie tipica degli strumenti barocchi, e Napoléon Coste was a French composer who had studied with Fernando Sor and introdusse la sesta corda. Nacque così il modello di strumento detto “guitare française who developed a guitar concept in keeping with his teachings, albeit veering in the ou italienne” , come la definì Carulli nel suo Metodo. direction of romanticism, which by the 1830s was beginning to prevail. Nei primi decenni dell’Ottocento l’arte della liuteria si sviluppò ulteriolmente, Coste proposed a new type of instrument, which was also built by Lacôte: a seven- dando vita a diverse scuole che incarnavano a loro volta diverse concezioni dello stringed guitar that responded to the need for greater timbric and harmonic potential, strumento, relative a differenze costruttive, estetiche e sonore. offering extended depth in the lower register. The work included in this CD was Fu un’epoca di grande sperimentazione frutto di una trasformazione del gusto conceived for this type of instrument, and derives directly from the programmatic musicale, legata alle innovazioni tecniche dei grandi chitarristi-compositori dell’epoca. music typical of the romantic symphonic repertoire. It is no coincidence that the piece È questo il presupposto che ispira il programma presentato in questo lavoro was dedicated to Hector Berlioz. discografico. Si tratta di una selezione, inevitabilmente parziale ma comunque The first half of the 1800s was the golden age of the guitar, not only on account of altamente rappresentativa, di quella che fu l’evoluzione della chitarra nella prima the actual output and the fame of guitarist-composers who performed in the theatres metà del secolo XIX. of Europe’s main capitals, but also thanks to the development of the luthier’s art, Attraverso una selezione di opere riproposta su strumenti d’epoca, che furono which was – and still is - essential to musical research. legati al successo e all’attività dei grandi chitarristi-compositori di quel periodo, ci si © Luigi Attademo approssima infatti a comprendere più profondamente quali fossero gli stili e da quale Translation: Kate Singleton ricerca sonora fosse animato il mondo della chitarra. Si parte da una composizione mai registrata, la Sonatina di Joseph Anelli, chitarrista e compositore torinese che diede alle stampe questa opera probabilmente nel 1809. Di lui restano pochi lavori e pochissime testimonianze, che ci raccontano dei suoi successi prima a Parigi e poi in Inghilterra. La sua musica è qui suonata su una chitarra torinese costruita da Gaetano II Guadagnini, grande erede della tradizione dei liutai che inizia con il più famoso Giovan Battista nella seconda metà del ‘700. Uno degli italiani che ebbe maggior successo in questo periodo fu senza dubbio Mauro Giuliani, che a Vienna già nel 1808 veniva considerato non solo come il con un modello di chitarra di Etienne Laprevotte, liutaio francese contemporaneo di chitarrista più importante, ma come una delle figure di spicco del contesto musicale Lacôte.