ener . . DDD
BANOS Guitar Collection 8.554198
Luigi
LEGNANI
36 Caprices, Op. 20
Fantasia, Op. 19
Pavel Steidl, GuitarLuigi Legnani (1790 - 1877)
Fantasia, Op. 19
36 Caprices, Op. 20
In the eighteenth century the “classical” guitar
evolved into its most common modern configuration;
the five double courses of the early century were
replaced by six single strings. This development
extended the bass range of the instrument, but, more
significantly, permitted the sort of rubato and vibrato
associated with the violin or the human voice. More
expressive and versatile than its predecessors, the
“new” guitar was capable of clear counterpoint and
facilitated dozens of instrumental devices such as
Jegati, harmonics, and flamboyant scale passages.
Masters of the instrument emerged throughout Europe,
and not surprisingly many of the greatest were from the
Italian peninsula, which still dominated opera and
exported its instrumentalists to the cultural capitals of
Europe. Virtuoso guitarists and composers such as
Moretti, Giuliani, and Carulli brought their innovations
to Madrid, Vienna, and Paris, respectively, and inspired
dozens of local imitators. Guitarists shared prestigious
concert programmes with pianists, violinists, and
sopranos, and publishers issued hundreds of works to
satisfy the thousands of professionals, dilettanti, and
parlour musicians now playing the guitar.
Luigi Rinaldo Legnani (1790-1877) was the
greatest Italian guitarist of the second generation. His
predecessors had established the audiences for the
guitar and made possible his career as a touring
performer; on the other hand, they had also raised the
technical standards and the expectations of these
audiences. Legnani’s virtuosity was often compared
with that of his friend Paganini, who wa
competent guitarist and who once stated that he
8.554198
considered Legnani “first” among guitarists. Bone
quotes a Spanish critic who wrote of Legnani’s
“remarkable agility of execution,” of his “tone of
infinite depth and rare singing beauty,” and celebrated
his cantabile on the bass strings. Nothing less was
pected from a concert artist in the days of Chopin
and Liszt
Legnani was born in Ferrara in 1790, but his family
moved to Ravenna when he was eight; that ancient city
served as his home base throughout his life, and it was
there that he died in 1877. Legnani studied music and
the guitar in Ravenna, performed with the local opera
company, and made his début as a guitarist in Milan in
1819. He was an instant success, and his concert tours,
expanded to include all the western capitals, from
Madrid to St Petersburg. For the next thirty years,
Legnani became part of the European musical
mainstream. He collaborated with the Viennese pianist
nd publisher Max Joseph Leidesdorf in several
compositions, and the arias of his good friend Rossini
formed the bases for many of his fantasies and
variations. Legnani not only performed with the great
violinist Paganini, he also stayed with him at his estate
near Parma during one of the latter’s extended
convalescences, and assisted him in preparing a
number of works for publication. Like many guitarists,
Legnani became fascinated with guitar construction
and sought ways to improve his instrument. He
collaborated with the Viennese luthiers Georg Ries and
Johann Anton Staufer, both of whom created “Legnani
model” guitars; in later life (after 1850), Legnani
retired to Ravenna, where he himself became a
2renowned builder of violins and guitars. For 1
recording, Pavel Steidl performs on a copy of a Staufer
made to Legnani’s ications.
Legnani’s career as a composer parallelled his solo
career. His first works were published by Ricordi in
Milan about the time of his début concert in 1819. The
next group of works were published in Vienna about
the time of his concerts there, and so on, It is
sometimes alleged that Legnani wrote over 250 wor
for the guitar, but this is probably not true. In 1839 the
Viennese firm of Artaria, having not published any of
Legnani’s works for six years and well aware that he
had published some works elsewhere in the interim,
apparently decided to avoid any conflicting opus
numbers by numbering their new series of his latest
works beginning with Op. 201, thus creating a lacuna
of over one hundred opus numbers. Similar lacunae
occur in the works of the guitarist Castellacei and a few
other musicians.
Both of the works recorded here were first
published by Artaria in Vienna in 1822. The Fantasia,
Op. 19, is a cheerful two movement work (Largo in A
minor, Allegro in A major) which eschews the usual
theme and variations formula and celebrates the
composer's technical brilliance. The Thirty-Six
Caprices for guitar, Op. 20, may have been inspired by
Paganini’s Twenty-four Caprices for violin, Op. 1
(composed in about 1805 but first published in Milan in
1820). Both cycles demonstrate a youthful exuberance
and flamboyant virtuosity, and both are didactic
showpieces for their respective instruments. Like
Paganini’s Capricci, Legnani’s are alternately
dramatic, expressive, or brilliant as the composer
explores most of the textures possible on his
instrument. As an unusual feature, Legnani’s Thirty-six
capricci also include pieces in twenty-two different
keys; only C# minor and G# minor are missing. The
guitar, like many instruments, “prefers” certain keys
over others for physical and organological reaso
ease of playing: the ready availability of certain open
strings, especially in the bass; and the rich resonance of
sympathetic strings in certain keys. This is why about
half of the guitar repertoire seems to be in a half dozen
keys, and the other pieces rarely venture beyond three
flats or four sharps. In part because Legnani’s Capricci
venture into this unexplored territory, they have
become classics of guitar pedagogy, constantly in print
since their introduction. But the transcendent technical
difficulties which some of the Capricci consequently
present also explain why all but a few of these wor
in spite of their unquestionable pedagogical and
musical value, are rarely recorded or heard in concert,
8.554198Pavel Steidl
Pavel Steidl was born in Rakovntk, near Prague
and studied at the Prague Conservatory with Milan
Zelenka, graduating in 1983. He then continued his,
studies with “Stépin Rak at the Academy of Music,
later working with Abel Carlevaro and David Russell.
He began to establish an international reputation in
1982, when he won the gold medal of the Radio France
Concours Internationale de la Guitare. He now enjoys a
Pavel Steidl (Photo: Bart Nellison)
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busy career as a performer and as a teacher in Holland
and elsewhere in Europe. He also performs music of an
earlier period on guitars from the nineteenth century in
addition to his repertoire of modern Spanish concert
guitar music, He is well known as a composer, while,
as.a performer, his recitals, guitar workshops and guitar
festival appearances have attracted a wide audience in
more than twenty countries.8.554198
Fantasia * 36 Caprices
LEGNANI
NAXOS
compact 8.554198 Luigi DDD E
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Recorded at St. John Chrysostom Church, Newmarket, Ontario, Canada, from
16th to 20th May, 1997 using 20-bit technology for high definition sound. _Visit the Naxos Internet site:
Producers: Norbert Kraft and Bonnie Silver http:/Avww.hnh.com
Editor: Bonnie Silver
Engineer: Norbert Kraft
Music Notes: Richard Long oe
[ee Guitar: Georg Staufer “Legnani Model” (copy) by o
‘NAXOS Bernhard Kresse (Cologne), 1996, =
ae Cover Painting: The Guitarist, by A. Canella (Bridgeman Art Library, London)| ¢ WZ 6943"4 1982! lls &