Jappelli - Guitar Music - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Album Tracks 1. Stop By, Lord 2. Sing to the Lord 3. Nobody Knows the Trouble I See 4. O for a Faith 5. Good News, the Savior Is Born! 6. Stand By Me 7. Lord, Make Me An Instrument 8. Rock-A My Soul 9. More Love to Thee 10. Lord Will Hear the Just/With Proclaim God's Marvelous Deeds 11. It's My Desire 12. Speak to My Heart 13. Taste and See 14. Sanctify Me

It's easy to identify the classical guitar with Spanish repertoire. After all, Andrés Segovia, who revived the fortunes of the instrument in the early decades of the 20th century after long neglect, was a Spaniard. This does not do justice, however, to the major contribution made to 20th-century guitar repertoire by a number of national schools, among which the United Kingdom's is particularly outstanding for the quantity and quality of the pieces. This album offers a significant sample of music for solo guitar by four important composers Cyril Scott, Lennox Berkeley, Benjamin Britten and William Walton. Despite being relatively unfamiliar to the wider public, the figure of Cyril Scott (1879-1970) is one of real interest. Though it was written in 1927, Scott's Sonatina has only entered the repertoire of today's guitarists in recent years. It's solid compositional mastery gives rise to a beauty at once enigmatic and captivating. Lennox Berkeley's (1903-1989) compositions for the guitar span almost half a century and are a faithful record of his stylistic evolution. Berkeley's 4 Pièces pour la guitare is a sparkling collection in spirit very close to the style of composers such as Albert Roussel and Francis Poulenc. The Nocturnal after John Dowland Op.70 (1963) by Benjamin Britten (1913-1976) is also a theme and variations, but rather than present the theme and develop it with variations, Britten inverts the form, revealing the theme only at the very end of the piece after it is gradually unveiled in fragments of a musical mosaic cleverly scattered across the preceding variations. The irreverent japes of William Walton's (1902-1983) Façade for speaker and instrumental sextet, which in 1922/3 marked the composer's debut as an enfant terrible, soon gave way to a late-Romantic style closer to Bax and Vaughan Williams. Album Tracks 1. Quatre Pièces pour la guitare~I.

Mario Gangi (1923-2010) was among the pre-eminent Italian guitarists of his generation. Born in Rome to a professional jazz-musician father, Gangi graduated from the city's Accademia della Santa Cecilia and soon followed in his father's footsteps as both an orchestral bassist (with the local radio orchestra) and a guitarist. This latter career took off in the 50s Gangi gave several important first performances of concertos by the likes of Petrassi and even the 19th-century Giuliani. His teaching method became an essential study for young guitarists, and he edited the music of Sor, Tarrega and J.S. Bach for modern guitar editions. With this recording, the Duo Pace Poli Cappelli present Gangi's music for two guitars, comprising a trio of suites - the Suite Italiana, the Suite Spagnola and Suite Barocca - and a pair of standalone rhapsodies in a more contemporary idiom, the Fantas and Fabulae. The three suites evoke their titled points of inspiration. An Andalusa, Fandango and Sevillana capture the idiom of Spanish folk-music; a Saltarello, Adagio and whirling Tarantella present musical snapshots of Italy; and the Minuet and Gigue of the Suite Barocca return to the courtly world of the 18th century without parody. The Fantas and Fabulae plough a more modern furrow still essentially lyrical in style, rhapsodic in form but more flecked with dissonance and less dependent than the suites on the specifics of a national idiom. The influence of modern popular styles imbues the Fantas in particular with sunshine and contemporary energy. Album Tracks 1. Suite Italiana~I. Allegro vivo 2. Suite Italiana~II. Adagio 3. Suite Italiana~III. Allegro Spigliato 4. Suite Spagnola~I. Andalusa 5. Suite Spagnola~II. Fandango 6. Suite Spagnola~III. Sevillana 7. Suite Barocca~I. Adagio 8. Suite Barocca~II. Minuetto 9. Suite Barocca~III. Allegro 10. Suite Barocca~IV. Gi