Saverio Gabrielli & Lorenzo Bernardi
Two italians in vienna
Niccolò Paganini & Mauro Giuliani
Vienna has been a very important hub for the two most important personalities of the violin and guitar: Niccolò Paganini and Mauro Giuliani. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, the two artists sought their fortune in Vienna, a city that later consecrated them as great virtuosos and founders of the Italian violin and guitar school; it is no coincidence that Giuliani was nicknamed “the Paganini of the guitar”, thus helping to intensify their bond, further sealed by the friendship and mutual esteem that bound them.
“Two Italians in Vienna” is a project which summarizes precisely that trend, of which Paganini and Giuliani are witnesses, which has seen many Italian musicians emigrate to the main European capitals, including Vienna, where instrumental music was mostly enhanced.
To intensify the link with Vienna, it is interesting to investigate the role of Anton Diabelli, Austrian composer, pianist and publisher, to whom Beethoven himself looked with admiration (famous the so-called “Diabelli” Variations op. 120 for piano). It so happens that Diabelli not only published works by Giuliani but transcribed the quartet n. 3 op. 11 by Louis Spohr for violin and guitar; work of which to date there is no registration. The link is twofold: both with the city of Vienna where Spohr worked as conductor at the Theater an der Wien from 1813 to 1815 and with the violin, in fact his invention of the chin rest was not applied until then.
Programme
Niccolò Paganini
Genova 1782- Nizza 1840
Sonata No.1 for violin and guitar, from ‘Centone di Sonate’
• Introduzione – Allegro
• Rondoncino.
Mauro Giuliani
Biscegelie 1781- Napoli 1829
Serenata Op. 127
• Maestoso
• Minuetto – Allegretto – Trio
• Tema – Andantino Mosso
• Variazione I – Piu Mosso
• Variazione II – Piu Lento
• Variazione III – Primo Tempo
• Rondo – Allegro
Niccolò Paganini
Sonata in A Major MS2
• Allegro Spiritoso
• Adagio assai espressivo
• Rondeau
Mauro Giuliani
Gran Duo Concertante Op. 52
• Andante sostenuoto
• Menuetto, Allegro vivace – Trio
• Rondo Militare – Allegretto
Louis Spohr
Brunswick 1784 - Kassel 1859
Grande Duo Op. 11 (Transcribed by Anton Diabelli)
• Allegro moderato
• Adagio
• Rondo