Musica Italiana

The selection of pieces on this album is a collection of original works for viola and guitar by Italian authors who lived between the early nineteenth and the second half of the twentieth century. Written in a galant style, characterized by a formal cleanness, the Duo op. 137 by Carulli is mostly focused on bel canto rather than on motivic development or elaboration. An emphasis on bel canto also characterizes the music of Niccolò Paganini (1782 - 1840). The Sonata for the Grand Viola by Paganini dates back to the Paris period. With the advent of the twentieth century Italian composers turned to instrumental composition even though many of them remained bound to an aesthetics of the past and tended to avoid much of the innovation coming from abroad (dodecaphony, jazz, impressionism, etc.). This generation of composers provided the teachers of Franco Margola (1908-1992) and Raffaele Gervasio (1910-1994). Bruno Battisti D'Amario (1937) is a guitar player, composer and teacher among the most important of his generation.