Grand Sonata for Violin and Guitar, Op. 25

Paganini was not only a famous Violin virtuoso but was also a masterful guitarist. Originally written for Violin and Guitar this Guitar solo version of the Grand Sonata captures the richness freshness and balanced structure of the original. Rhythmic and harmonic twists from the Violin part have been carefully integrated to ensure the spirit of the piece is preserved.

Mauro Giuliani is considered today to have been the most important guitarist-composer of the early nineteenth century. Not only was Giuliani the foremost player of his day: his fame reached far beyond the realm of guitar enthusiasts, earning him a place among the musical élite as a complete, versatile musician. Even so, by the end of the nineteenth century he was largely forgotten and his music managed to retain little more than a marginal presence in the repertory of the great guitarists of the early twentieth century. The current revitalization of his work owes its origins to the monumental research begun by Thomas Heck in 1971 and continued by Ruggero Chiesa, Mario Torta, Marco Riboni, and Gerhard Pen. Thanks to the dedication of these scholars, Giuliani's music has progressively returned to its erstwhile prominence in the performing repertory. Giuliani wrote some 230 works, of which 150 carry opus numbers. They consist above all of pieces for solo guitar and a considerable quantity of chamber music for guitar and violin, flute, piano, or voice, as well as three guitar concertos. Based on the texts of the first published editions, the pieces in this collection have been revised only with the addition of fingering (according to the technique documented in Giuliani's method (Studio per la chitarra opus 1) and his Esercizio per la chitarra contenente 24 pezzi della maggiore difficoltà, diversi preludi passaggi ed assolo opus 48, published by Steiner in 1813) and the correction of obvious typographical errors. / 1 Ou 2 Guitare(s)

Par PAGANINI NICCOLO. Paganini’s Inno patriottico con variazioni for solo violin M.S. 81 is a composition dating back to the period between 1796 and 1800, during which he also composed works such as the Carmagnola con variazioni M.S. 1 for violin and guitar, the Grande Concerto M.S. 75, the Tema variato for violin M.S. 82 and the Sonata a violin solo M.S. 83. There is not very much background material regarding the piece: the only certainties we have about it are that it dates from his early period, springs from a Genovese environment and has numerous similarities to the Carmagnola con variazioni M.S. 1: both compositions are based on a sprightly popular theme in 6/8 that can be traced back to the Perigordino, a French dance that first appeared in the Ligurian Apennines during the Napoleonic period. The structure of the Inno patriottico con variazioni substantially follows that of the Carmagnola and Tema variato: a theme followed by a series of variations in which Paganini demonstrates his personal concept of variation. This edition is based on a recently rediscovered, non-autograph source owned by the descendants of Eredi Sivori, in combination with the copy held by the Archivio Storico del Comune di Genova and printed sources./ Répertoire / Violon