Baroque Guitar Favourites

"Sensitive phrasing, strong tone quality and tidy ornamentation are present throughout"
- Classical Guitar

Antonio Vivaldi was one of the best violinists of his day, and many of his concertos were written for his own performance. Among these is the Concerto in E minor, Opus 11, No.2, known as II Favorito, and one of those dedicated to the Emperor Charles VI. This is one of the finest concertos of the period in terms of expressiveness and organisation of musical content. The possibilities for subtlety of expression and sustained notes available on the twentieth century guitar enabled me to transcribe this masterpiece with hardly any alteration. A more obvious choice for transcription, however, is the lute music which Vivaldi wrote, as both guitar and lute are sounded by plucking strings with fingers. Part of the charm of the plucked string sound lies in the dying away of a note as soon as it is played. The concerto in D major brings the lute to the fore and many solo passages are supported by only the basso continuo. These lute pieces were written around 1730 and dedicated to a Bohemian, Count Wrtby. It is perhaps appropriate that they were recorded in Slovakia with musicians whose pedigree extends back to that time. The Trio Sonatas in C major and G minor, RV 82 and RV 85, were originally written for violin, lute and continuo, instead of the more usual two violins. Again, transcription of the lute part for guitar is relatively straightforward.