with Laura Campbell - Chris White
and Ian Osgood
"...an imaginative, interesting and pleasurable disc... featuring skillful arrangements by Karl Wolff. In the solo guitar works - Bach, Handel, Purcell and Buttsted - he shows himself to be both an accomplished performer and interpreter..." Steve Marsh - Classical Guitar Magazine - UK
Song Tracks
Domenico Scarlatti
1 - Sonata in B Major
2 - Sonata in D Minor
Johann Sebastian Bach
3 - Prelude - BWV 998
4 - Fugue - BWV 998
5 - Allegro - BWV 998
Canonic Sonata in G - Telemann
6 - Vivace
7 - Adagio
8 - Allegro
Canonic Sonata in D - Telemann
9 - Spirituoso
10 - Larghetto
11 - Allegro assai
George Fredrick Handel
12 - Air Lentamente
13 - Fughetta
Henry Purcell
14 - Ground in Gamut
Johann Heinrich Buttsted
15 - Menuet
Johann Sebastian Bach
16 - Prelude and Fugue No. 1 BWV 846
Antonio Lotti - Sonata In G - Flute, Guitar, Cello
17 - Largo
18 - Allegro
19 - Adagio
20 - Vivace
Karl Wolff. Guitar
lain Osgood: Guitar
Laura Campbell: Flute
Chris White: Cello
Recorded: June - December 2003 - Ithaca New York
Recording this particular program was a wondrous event, full of challenge and discovery. Aside from the well-known Prelude, Fugue and Allegro by Johann Sebastian Bach, most of the material on this CD is new for classical guitarists, so a fair amount of time went to researching each composer and the history that surrounds them.
We intentionally chose music that was written in some of the truly unique forms that were invented and refined during the baroque era. Like the canonic sonatas of Telemann and the trio sonata by Antonio Lotti for flute, guitar and cello. It may also delight you, as it did us, to find that many of the musicians whose pieces we recorded knew one another, either personally or through the music they had written.
It is a long-standing tradition for musicians of all kinds to transcribe and perform music composed for instruments different from the ones that they typically play. I mention this here because the modern classical guitar as we know it didn't exist at the time that the compositions on this CD were written. While instruments similar to the modern guitar did exist during the baroque era and were available in a wide variety of models and styles, none among them were as popular as the harpsichord. This plucked keyboard was often the instrument of choice for accompaniment in oratorios or operas, and noted composers of that time wrote and performed a large number of solo works for it. Modern guitars, both louder and more reliably in tune than their forerunners, are able to play much of the beautiful and challenging music that was originally written for the harpsichord during the baroque era.
