Llobet: Canciones populares catalanas

This new recording presents the complete guitar works of Llobet, who himself was a virtuoso on his instrument, as shown in the complex and innovative writing. Barcelona-born Miguel Llobet once played for the Spanish royal family in the early 20th century. Credited with beginning the notion of a touring classical guitarist, Llobet travelled throughout Europe and beyond, briefly settling in both Paris and Buenos Aires. He later returned to Barcelona, unable to distance himself from his birthplace despite the grip of the civil war in which the city found itself.

This collection brings together Llobet's complete works for guitar, beginning with Leonesa and his popular arrangements of 13 Catalan folk songs. These arrangements, each of a varying character, wring a different emotion from the guitar, from the sprightly L'Hereu Riera and lilting El Noi de la Mare to the flourishes of Cançó de Lladre and the mournful El Testament d'Amelia. The Variations on a Theme of Sor, based on Fernando Sor's B minor study, contrast a haunting melody with complex articulation. Also featured on the disc are Llobet's 5 Preludes, the Argentinian Folk Songs, Etudes, the witty and bright Scherzo-Waltz, and the composer's debut composition Romance, among others.

Italian guitarist Giulio Tampalini studied at the Luca Marenzio Conservatory in Brescia and the G.F. Ghedini Conservatory in Cuneo, and has attended masterclasses all over the world with performers such as Tilman Hoppstock, Eliot Fisk and Dusan Bogdanovic. He has won awards at many international competitions and has performed with orchestras across Europe, America and Asia, including the Andalusian Symphony Orchestra, the European Soloists of Luxembourg, and Pittsburgh's Point Chamber Orchestra.

New recording, recorded on 3--6 May 2012, Bartók Recording Studio, Bernareggio, Milan.

Tampalini plays on a Philip Woodfield 2010 guitar (strings: Aquila Perla).

The works of Spanish composer Miguel Llobet (1878-1838) have to be seen in the light of his own tragic life, which after glorious periods in the highest artistic circles of Paris at the beginning of the 20th century, ended in depression and gloom in Barcelona in the dismal circumstances caused by the Spanish Civil War. His music eschews the artificial quasi-Spanish-folklore elements, but is firmly rooted in the Spanish culture, albeit of a deeper and darker character, and injected with 20th century modernist elements.

Excellent performances by Giulio Tampalini, one of Italy's leading guitarists.

Contains superb liner notes by Angelo Gilardino and a biography of the artist.

Born in Milan, Italy in 1984 Marco Ramelli has been a first prize winner at international competitions including the Blas Sanchez, Città di Seveso, Rocco Peruggini and Riviera Etrusca competitions, and was the winner of the inaugural Scottish International Guitar Competition held at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. In addition, he won second prize at the renowned Seville International Guitar Competition in 2012.

Marco regularly performs in Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom and recently made his USA debut in Los Angeles. His concert career has featured performances at international music festivals including the Stagione Internazionale della Chitarra di Lodi in Italy, and in the UK at the Big Guitar Weekend (Glasgow), Guitar Master (Brighton) and the Tolmen International Guitar Festival (Cornwall).

Marco Ramelli is Artistic Director of the Festival Corde d’Autunno in Milan, and combines this role with an active teaching career. Marco began his studies with Andrea Dieci, graduating from the Conservatorio di musica Giuseppe Verdi in Milan, followed by a post-graduate diploma from the Conservatorio Luca Marenzio Darfo (Italy). He has participated in masterclasses throughout Europe with world-renowned guitarists such as Pavel Steidl and Oscar Ghiglia. From 2007 to 2011 he regularly attended the Giulio Regondi Guitar Academy in Milan, continuing his studies with Andrea Dieci and Bruno Giuffredi.

Marco Ramelli plays on an Angelo Vailati guitar.

There is no question of José Miguel Moreno being anything other than the leading Spanish specialist in historical plucked string instruments. As a concert performer, researcher, builder and collector of instruments and co-founder of the Glossa label, Moreno has, over the last 30 years, been the guiding beacon for a number of succeeding generations of guitarists and lutenists the world over. Glossa was the label for which he recorded two of his now legendary programmes, La Guitarra Española (1536-1836) and La Guitarra Española (1818-1918). These had previously been deleted but Glossa are now bringing them back as a double set.

Moreno plays a range of instruments made either by Lourdes Uncilla or by himself in order to infuse with a new vitality the fundamental repertories in the history of the guitar as bequeathed by the vihuelists Narváez, Milán and Mudarra, then later composed by figures such as Francisco Guerau, Santiago de Murcia and Gaspar Sanz, and subsequently through the romantic scores of Fernando Sor and Johann Kaspar Mertz. Tárrega and Llobet, the great masters of post-Romanticism, close this survey striding with infinite musicality across the most representative compositions of four centuries of the Spanish guitar. This special edition marks, as well, the departure point of a new process of collaboration between José Miguel Moreno and the label which he helped to create, with brand new recordings being planned, which will appear from the autumn of this year onwards.