Pieri, Edoardo
Mario Castelnuovo-tedesco: Appunti, Preludes And Studir
Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, a Jewish-Italian musician who spent his last years in the US due to racial persecution in Italy, wrote several masterpieces for the guitar, even though he was not a guitarist himself. Among them are the Appunti, two volumes of guitar pieces originally intended for pedagogical purposes and created upon a prompting by musicologist and guitarist Ruggero Chiesa. As was usual for him, Castelnuovo-Tedesco discussed many details of guitar writing with Chiesa, and the suggestions he received were included in Book One, which was entirely revised by the two musicians jointly. This revision could not be accomplished for Book Two, composed by Castelnuovo-Tedesco a short time before his death, and therefore left in an instrumentally unsatisfactory form; Books Three and Four unfortunately never saw the light. This Da Vinci Classics album offers a beautiful itinerary through the finished works, some of which required deep editing by the performer of this recording, Edoardo Pieri, who was therefore able to revive some masterful works providing them with the voice they deserve.