For Guitar

Around 1800 Vienna was, alongside Paris, one of the European centers for guitar performance. The instrument was well suited for the idiom of Viennese classicism and ideal for domestic music-making and it was promoted by figures such as the virtuoso Mauro Giuliani and the composer/publisher Anton Diabelli.

The New York City Guitar Orchestra, conducted by Jason Sagebiel and Nicoletta Todesco in collaboration with artistic direction by John Olson, releases Spectra, a collection of newly composed works for multiple guitars by such luminaries of the plucked string world as David Leisner, Frederic Hand, David Loeb, William Anderson, and João Luiz. Music for multiple players on the same instrument has grown in recent years, perhaps inspired by the success of percussion ensembles. Works by prominent composers for several bassoons, or flutes, or pianos have made their mark on concert programs. The guitar is a natural fit for similar ventures, inhabiting its own space in the concert music world, increasingly integrated with other instruments but retaining its unique profile. The music and spirited collaboration on this recording reflect the sense of community that is only further enhanced by projects of this sort.

J.S. Bach’s Cello Suites are believed to have been written in the Saxon town of Cöthen between 1717 and 1723. They stand near the apex of Bach’s compositions for a single instrument and contain some of his most beautiful and vivid writing. Jeffrey McFadden’s guitar arrangements augment these elements with their own harmonic complexity, creating a new string medium for these epochal works. Volume 1, containing the first three suites, was highly praised, "McFadden's ability to make the guitar sing is second to none" (The Daily Telegraph, United Kingdom).

J.S. Bach’s Cello Suites are believed to have been written in the Saxon town of Cöthen between 1717 and 1723. They stand near the apex of Bach’s compositions for a single instrument and contain some of his most beautiful and vivid writing.

What happens when a composer “discovers the possibilities inherent in the guitar” (Trygve Madsen) and writes music that “does not need to follow a set musical form” (Bjørn Bolstad Skjelbred)? And how can one offer a “glimpse of something that could have been bigger” (Kjell Marcussen)? With this as a point of departure, the three composers have written 23 preludes that give us insight into their musical universe. While revealing significant variation in compositional devices and playing techniques, the preludes featured here truly challenge the possibilities and limitations of the guitar. The pieces can be experienced as small stories: lovely, stimulating, gruesome, dynamic, tonal, contrastive, expressive, melancholy, mechanical, and much more. They are never bland and meaningless!

What happens when a composer “discovers the possibilities inherent in the guitar” (Trygve Madsen) and writes music that “does not need to follow a set musical form” (Bjørn Bolstad Skjelbred)? And how can one offer a “glimpse of something that could have been bigger” (Kjell Marcussen)? With this as a point of departure, the three composers have written 23 preludes that give us insight into their musical universe. While revealing significant variation in compositional devices and playing techniques, the preludes featured here truly challenge the possibilities and limitations of the guitar. The pieces can be experienced as small stories: lovely, stimulating, gruesome, dynamic, tonal, contrastive, expressive, melancholy, mechanical, and much more. They are never bland and meaningless!

The lute often conjures images of medieval bards and travelling troubadours, but the instrument’s repertoire extends long beyond the Dark Ages. On Sylvius Leopold Weiss, guitarist and lutist Alan Rinehart pays tribute to the composer’s legacy of the high Baroque, bringing to light a collection of works that were overshadowed by the keyboard works of his contemporaries.