Stefano Grondona La Guitarra Callada, Complete Works For Guitar (2017)

Marcin Swiatkiewicz, one of today’s leading harpsichordists, invites us to join him in the multifaceted and wondrous world of chromaticism on his latest release. He performs repertoire from the seventeenth century on an Italian harpsichord by Detmar Hungerberg with fourteen keys per octave (split upper keys for d sharp and e flat and for g sharp and a flat) and in mean-tone temperament. The repertoire from the eighteenth century is heard on a two-manual copy after Johannes Ruckers by Christian Fuchs. The chromatic style is a special musical phenomenon. Already highly valued by the Greeks during antiquity, it was discovered for the modern world by Humanist scholars of antiquity during the Italian renaissance.

The French-born guitarist Roland Dyens began studying his instrument at the age of nine. By age 33, he was listed as one of the world’s best by The Guitarist Magazine. Dyens is currently a professor at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris. Known also as a brilliant arranger, Dyens has chosen some of the most memorable guitar repertoire by late 18th and early 19th - century composers and arranged it for solo guitar and string quartet, specifically the Quatuor Arthur LeBlanc: seven études by the 19th century Catalan composer Fernando Sor; and one of the six Rossiniana composed by Mauro Giuliani on themes from Rossini operas. Dyens also performs Giuliani’s Variations on a Theme by Handel and Sor’s Grand Solo, opus 14 for solo guitar.