19th Century Guitar Music Luigi Attademo

• 1 Sonatina: Largo - Allegro 06:35
• 2 I. Introduzione. Andantino 04:58
• 3 II. Andante grazioso 02:33
• 4 III. Maestoso 01:35
• 5 IV. Moderato 03:04
• 6 V. Allegro vivace 03:04
• 7 No. 2 - Allegro 00:54
• 8 No. 4 - Allegretto 00:51
• 9 No. 7 - Prestissimo 01:22
• 10 No. 15 - Allegro 01:12
• 11 No. 19 - Allegretto grazioso 01:52
• 12 No. 22 - Adagio 02:47
• 13 No. 24 - Allegro molto 01:11
• 14 No.29 - Prestissimo 00:40
• 15 I. Introduction et theme 03:02
• 16 II. Variation I 01:07
• 17 III. Variation II. Mineur 01:57
• 18 IV. Variation III 01:09
• 19 V. Variation IV. più mosso 00:45
• 20 VI. Variation V. più mosso 01:09
• 21 Andante - Allegretto 05:39
• 22 I. Adagio 02:07
• 23 II. Allegro vivace 04:32
• 24 III. Allegro 01:24
• 25 I. Introduction 02:05
• 26 II. Allegro maestoso 09:09
• Total Runtime 01:06:43

Info for 19th Century Guitar Music

A guitar compilation out of the ordinary: full of Mediterranean fire and foot-tapping rhythms, but in the context of a historically informed journey through the cultural landscape of the guitar’s spiritual home in the 19th century, and played on original instruments of the time by a musician who has thoroughly researched the technique and technical developments necessary for performances fully within the idiom. There is even a first recording, most unusually for this often-heard repertoire: the Sonatina by Giuseppe Anelli, a guitarist and composer from Turin who probably published these pieces in 1809.

The best-known names on this album are Mauro Giuliani and his rival Fernando Sor, both being famed through the capitals of Europe as virtuoso guitarists in the first decades of the 19th century. Giuliani’s Capricci Op.20 are a synthesis of his musical style, full of virtuoso passages and feature a delightful melodic vein that clearly derives from the bel canto tradition. Meanwhile the Fantasia Op.21 and the Variations Op.9 are fine examples of Sor’s style, with their implicit references to Mozart and Haydn as sources of inspiration.

Less familiar to us now is Dionisio Aguado, who was in Paris during the 1830s. His renown as a composer is less widespread than that of Sor, perhaps because he spent much of his life writing a teaching method (published in 1849) that embodies not only a synthesis of his technical vision of the instrument, but also an aesthetics of sound and an approach to interpretation that are distinctly modern in concept.

The guitar’s technological innovations are more evident in the music of Napoléon Coste, a student of Sor who devised a seven-stringed guitar that responded to the need for greater timbral and harmonic variety, offering extended richness in the lower register. Le Tournoi, a ‘Fantasie chevaleresque’, was conceived for this type of instrument, and derives directly from the programmatic music typical of the romantic symphonic repertoire. It is no coincidence that the piece was dedicated to Hector Berlioz.

In the beginning of the 19th century the guitar gained a widespread popularity. The technical developments of the instrument led composers to take it seriously and compositions began to appear regularly.

This album offers a survey of the most important guitar composers of the 19th century: Mauro Giuliani, Napoleon Coste, Giuseppe Anelli, Luigi Legnani and Fernando Sor: music of classical Viennese background, spiced up by the colouristic possibilities of the instrument, charming, witty and pleasing to the salon audiences.

Guitarist Luigi Attademo, one of the most important guitarists of his generation, adds an authentic flavour to the recording by playing several 19th century historical guitars.

Luigi Attademo, classical guitar

Luigi Attademo
Award-winning in several national and international competitions, among the others the “Concours International d’Exécution Musicale (CIEM)” in Geneva (1995), Luigi Attademo was pupil of the guitarist-composer Angelo Gilardino. He has been invited as a guest in several festivals and he has given the first performance of many contemporary works. Among his teachers, Julius Kalmar (conduction), composers as Giovanni Guanti, Dusan Bogdanovic and Alessandro Solbiati, and the harpsichord player Emilia Fadini (Baroque music). Graduate in Philosophy with a dissertation on the musical interpretation, he published a book about this subject. He is contributor to several specialized magazines. He worked in the Archive of the Andrés Segovia’s Foundation (Linares-Spain), to catalogue its manuscripts, and he discovered some unknown manuscripts of important composers, such as Jaume Pahissa, Alexandre Tansman, Gaspar Cassadò and others. He recorded several CDs, particularly dedicated to Baroque music and to Segovia Repertoire. In the 2007, Guitar Review dedicated an interview and a CD to his works. In 2010 he gave concerts in London, Madrid and in Australia, performing contemporary music and two different projects about Villa-Lobos and Segovia, instead in 2011 he was invited at GFA Festival where he proposed his projecton Baroque music. He teaches at ISSM Gaetano Donizetti in Bergamo (Italy), and he is often invited as expert at the Geneva and Lausanne Conservatories. From 2010 he is invited to give a lecture/recital at Royal Academy of Music of London. After his his cd dedicated to Scarlatti's Sonatas (2009), in 2011 he recorded a double cd dedicated to Bach music for lute, published by the Brilliant Classics. In 2013 he worked to a book and a CD on the 'Paganini Project' (contemporary music for guitar), published by the Sinfonica Editions. In the same year, he has recorded with the complete music for guitar by Niccolò Paganini (Brilliant Classics). This year the Italian magazine Amadeus dedicated him an issue, publishing a new recording on Fernando Sor's masterworks.

Booklet for 19th Century Guitar Music