Giuliani | Sonata, op. 15, for solo guitar | PDF Download

TECLA 0497
Giuliani | Sonata, op. 15, for solo guitar
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*This title is also available in print format, TECLA 0497 paperbound version.

Mauro Giuliani’s Sonata op. 15 dates from 1808, that is to say from the very first moments of his arrival in Vienna from Italy and his great success there as a guitar virtuoso.

The sonata is presented here in a Tecla modern urtext re-engraved edition (not facsimile) which is prepared from the earliest known edition, that is to say from the edition of the Imprimerie Chimique which was advertised in Vienna on 16 July 1808.

This point about the original edition is not of trivial importance! Why? Because very large numbers of changes were introduced into the next edition of the sonata which was that of Steiner in Vienna in 1812, and those very many changes of Steiner, which there is no reason to think that Giuliani had anything to do with, remained in place in later editions right up to the present day.

A prominent example of the changes is that the original edition, that of the Imprimerie Chimique, has “pmo” in about 28 different places which the Steiner edition has changed into “p”. But Giuliani’s compositional style makes much of dynamic contrast, as you can see by the very careful and precise dynamic markings in this sonata: if he wanted you to play a passage pianissimo then I’m sure that he had a very good reason to do so, no doubt by creating a contrast with a louder passage before or after. But if you use an edition which is ultimately derived from that Steiner edition, you will lose that contrast that Giuliani intended, you won’t even know that it was supposed to be there. You can see Giuliani’s frequent and detailed dynamics, with lots of contrast, at FIRST PART FREE here.

This present edition is derived from that original Imprimerie Chimique edition of 1808, so that anyone who uses this present re-engraved edition can be sure of playing from a text straight from the composer. Don’t mess around with altered texts; get the original, it’s best.

(By the way, this present edition which Tecla previously published in printed form, was much praised for its well-placed page turns.)

Brian Jeffery

• Model: TECLA X 10182 - DL
• Manufactured by: Tecla
• Condition: New