Giuliani: Guitar Concertos

Mauro Giuliani (1781-1828) was a contemporary of Schubert and one of the many Italian guitar virtuosos who had to flee his own country to get noticed. He ended up in Vienna frequently playing in the fashionable salons and contributing to the guitar becoming all the rage there. As a composer he mainly wrote for his own use: around 200 pieces in all. Many of his works are still popular today, and belong to the standard guitar repertoire. 'Composer, or rather translator of beauty'. This is how Giuliani described himself in a letter to Anton Diabelli on 24 January 1824, and it contains all the poetry and aesthetics of his music, which is quintessentially beautiful, charming, melodious and witty. This important new recording presents Giuliani's two guitar concertos and the Variations on the favourite Cavatina 'Deh! Calma, oh ciel!' (from La donna del lago by Rossini) for Guitar and String Quartet. The two concertos and the Rossini variations offer a vivid portrait of Mauro Giuliani as both performer and composer. They show him as a virtuoso elevating the guitar to the rank of a true concert instrument, capable of standing alongside the orchestra, and as a refined chamber musician in dialogue with strings and with the operatic tradition that dominated the imagination of his time. Played by one of the leading guitarists of our time, Giulio Tampalini and the Orchestra da Camera 'Ferruccio Busoni', conducted by Massimo Belli. Tampalini recorded extensively for Brilliant Classics, including works by Llobet, Tarrega, Paganini, Matiegka, Legnani, Rodrigo and Respighi.