Format : Listening CD
SKU: IS.G6129EM
ISBN 9790365061297.
Carcassi was born in Florence, Italy, and first studied the piano, but learned guitar when still a child. He quickly gained a reputation as a virtuoso concert guitarist. He moved to Germany in 1810, gaining almost immediate success. In 1815, he was living in Paris, earning his living as a teacher of both the piano and the guitar. On a concert tour in Germany in 1819, he met his friend Antoine Meissonnier for the first time. Also a famous guitarist, Meissonnier published many of Carcassi's works in his Paris publishing house. For Meissonnier he also arranged a number of popular songs for guitar that were originally written for piano, including works by Théodore Labarre and Loïsa Puget. From 1820 on, Carcassi spent the majority of his time in Paris. In 1823, he performed an extremely successful series of concerts in London that earned him great fame, both as a performing artist and as a teacher. However, in Paris, a long time passed before his talents were truly recognized, partly because of the presence of Ferdinando Carulli. Carcassi was in Germany again during autumn 1824. Afterwards he performed in London, where his reputation now gave him access to more prestigious concert halls. Finally he returned to Paris. For several years, he made concert trips from here to the most important cultural towns of Europe, including London. After a short return to performing in 1836, he quit his concert practice around 1840 and died in Paris in 1853. His most famous works are collected in his 25 Etudes op. 60. In these, he managed to blend technical skills and brilliant romantic music. This is the reason his music is still played by so many classical guitarists today.
SKU: UT.CH-335
ISBN 9790215326538. 9 x 12 inches.
The Trois airs variés for violin and piano belong to the small nucleus of compositions for this scoring which, in the Catalogo tematico, also includes the Cantabile in D major (M.S.109), the only original manuscript piece for violin and piano recently published in a critical edition, and the Quattro Notturni a quartetto (M.S.15). This ‘triptych’, whose authorship is unknown, is familiar thanks to the nineteenth-century editions Ricordi, Pacini and Hofmeister, the only evidence of the piece which is placed in the Catalogo tematico at n. 3 of the uncertain works (Section V, pp. 346-347), that is, those works whose authorship remains in doubt due to the lack of objectively valid documents. This placing does not categorically exclude the originality of the piece, at least as regards the violin part, and that Gustavo Carulli ‘completed’ them later by adding the piano part. Given that to date there is no evidence to deny Paganini’s authorship of the piece, we rely on the editorial tradition documented by the three publications mentioned above and, of course, on the style of the composition. Regarding the instrumental aspect, the technical peculiarity is given by the exclusive use of the 4th string which must be transposed one tone above, in all three airs, including the variations. Concerning the piano part composed by Gustavo Carulli, it can only be said that it is simple and functional, aimed at highlighting the violin part, nothing more. Since the piano part is not original, the guitar has been thought of as the ideal instrument (as indeed is proved by Paganini’s considerable musical production for this scoring) to support the violin part and which is better suited to these small but pleasant pieces. In the transposition for guitar, however, the aim has been to include Gustavo Carulli’s musical lesson, where it is convincing, in other cases, however, the preference has been to find different solutions, while trying to remain within Paganini’s ‘style’ also as regards writing for the guitar. The present edition therefore seeks to be a plausible alternative to the previous editions, also in order to make these delightful but forgotten pieces more usable.
