Une soirée à Paris

Giovanni Noventa

D.Aguado -N.Paganini- F.Sor- F. Carulli – N.Coste- M.Carcassi

Une soirée à Paris

The album

The works brought together here are linked by a subtlefi/ rouge, which takes us back to the first decades of the nineteenth century, when in Paris - at that time considered the world capitai of music - the guitar had a long season of success; this was due to the presence ofnumerous Italian and Spanish virtuosos, to whom we owe concert pieces and didactic works that laid the foundations ofthe technique and repertoire ofthe instrument, and stili constitute an essential vademecum for the training of any guitarist. The power ofthe attraction ofthe metropolis is demonstrated by the fact that almost ali the composers represented here - Dionisio Aguado (1784-1849), Fernando Sor
(1778-1839), Ferdinando Carulli (1770-1841), Matteo Carcassi (1796-1853) and Napoléon Coste (1805-1883) - spent a long time there, and some ofthem chose it as their permanent residence, like Sor, Carulli and Carcassi. It was in Paris that Aguado and Sor met for the first time and formed a lasting friendship. (Coste, Sor's student was the only French-speaker in the group, Swiss by birth but Parisian by adoption.) As for Paganini, we ali know his passion for the instrument, which he started to study in 1801, while temporarily interrupting his violin activity. He soon became a virtuoso of it and during the course ofhis !ife, he dedicated 140 pieces to the guitar, among which solo sonatas or with violin, numerous distinctive pieces and 15 quartets for guitar and strings stand out.
The programme ofthe CD allows fora broad overlook at the typical compositions of the time which were very appreciated by the audience: captivating pieces that offer the author-interpreter the opportunity to show his virtuosity, often exploiting famous opera arias, popular melodies or well-known dance rhythms added in free-form fantasies usually opened by a slow introduction, followed by the chosen melodies developed into variations; or sometimes examples of"absolute music", such as: sonatas, minuets, single movements in a slow tempo, or vice versa short pieces with programmatic titles (This is the case with Carulli 's three Petits Morceaux) that suggest a certain emotional climate.
The Fandango variado op.16 is the last composition with an opus number written by Dionisio Aguado. In the style of the traditional Andalusian dance, it opens with a thoughtful introductory Adagio, followed by the proper Fandango consisting of a livelier section characterized by ever new and pressing rhythmic figurations, interrupted by a brief introspective episode; a brilliant Allegro follows, which then gives way to the enthralling arpeggios ofthe final Più vivo. The three compositions by Paganini probably date back to 1820. The Ghiribizzo n. 16 comes from the collection of 43 similar pieces published in 1984 whose curious name suggests the idea of"bizarre and capricious inventions". The title "Nel cor più non mi sento" comes from Giovanni Paisiello 's Molinara, a comedy for music performed in Naples in 1788 with a resounding success, especially for the highly acclaimed aria of the protagonist - the miller Rachelina, courted by two men and undecided about the one to choose - which was transcribed severa! times in the nineteenth century (starting with Beethoven, who composed six variations for the piano on this melody in 1795). In the guitar arrangement, Paganini adapted the aria with a certain freedom, resulting in a graceful two-part piece with refrain, totally free of the transcendental virtuosities that characterise the contemporary violin version. The two sonatas ( n. 13 in C major, n. 33 in C minor) from the collection of37 similar compositions published in 1986 are also in bipartite form. They both consist of a minuet in two sections with a refrain ( but without the traditional centrai Trio) followed by an Andantino; in the one of n. 33, a very short Finale of four bars in C major, is added.
The first ofFemando Sor's three pieces Les Folies d'Espagne variées, et un Menuet is based on one of the oldest European musical themes, that later developed in the Baroque Age as a passacaglia bass. Sor proposes it in E minor, developing it in two periods of eight bars, followed by four traditional variations, consisting of decorating the theme while maintaining the harmonic structure and offering as many periphrases: the first, the third and the fourth variations are livelier, the second one is more restrained. The Minuet serves as a coda, in the usual two sections with refrain and which closes the piece in a ceremonious E major.
The Andante Largo, the fifth ofthe six pieces op. 5, is an example of Sor's expressive style. It is divided into three sections, according to the AB A scheme, with !itera! repetitions of A: the first one, in D major, unfolds a series of delicate descending cantabile lines, enriched by thriving thirty seconds figurations; the serious middle section, in the "pathetic" D minor, develops along mostly ascending lines, supported by dense textures in the middle-low register.
The Introduction et Variation sur l'Air : Malbroug (as the first Parisien edition was called) written in 1827, is one ofhis best known compositions, also for the fame ofthe lively tune on which it is based: the French folk song Malbrough s'en va-t-en guerre, written in 1709 for the alleged death of John Churchill, duke ofMarlbrough during the Spanish war of Secession . (actually a hoax : the duke died in 1722). Like the Andante, Malbrough also involves the detuning ofthe sixth string to D. lt is preceded by an introduction based on the initial notes of the theme, followed by five variations - with the inevitable parenthesis in minor ( the second one) - which, compared to the Folies d 'Espagne explore its potential in greater depth, especially, the fourth one. The parting is ironie: the melody is proposed again in harmonics and it fades away in a mournful pianissimo. (After all the ending ofthe song is clear: "Monsieur Marlbrough est mort / Est mort et enterré"... ).
The three pieces by Ferdinando Carulli offer an example ofthe guitar genre previously defined as " programmatic" : they are modest but interesting examples of sound painting, they mean to represent, in this case, a feeling, a character, a situation . L' Amour is a languid Larghetto amoroso, Le Calme - homonymous ofthe far more interesting Sor's capriccio - a Larghetto espressivo, Le Calme, dutifully, an Allegro agitato.
Napoléon Coste is together with Giulio Regondi e Johann Kaspar Mertz one ofthe fathers ofthe guitar romanticism. One of Sor's students, his wide and innovative production is inspired by the Viennese classicism, but it also looks at Mendelssohn and Chopin in the harmony and in the melodie style. Les soirées d'Auteuil is a serenade of a certain charme, divided into three movements, an Andante followed by an Andantino with a vast final Scherzo in a minor key. The Fantasia on Norma, instead presents a skillful intertwining ofhighly remarkable complex variations that envelop Bellini's themes (among which the aria "Ah! Bello a me ritorna" in the first act) offered with scrupulous fidelity in an elegant and enjoyable pastiche.
Closing on a smiling note: the short Air varié by the prolific Fiorentine Matteo Carcassi; it is based on a theme of almost childish simplicity, on which five variations are inserted with increasingly animated pace, to the brilliant flurry of demisemiquavers in the last one.