L’Amoroso

L’Amoroso & Guido Balestracci – A Schubertiade with Arpeggione (2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/176,4 kHz | Time – 01:03:42 minutes | 2,07 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Ricercar

The arpeggione, invented in 1823 by the Viennese luthier Johann Georg Stauffer, had a curious destiny. As its alternative names ‘guitar violoncello’ and ‘guitare d’amour’ suggest, it is in fact a guitar fitted with a bridge, held between the knees like a cello and played with a bow. The instrument enjoyed some success for around a decade, but, oddly enough, almost nothing has survived from its specific repertory except one supreme masterpiece: the sonata Franz Schubert wrote for it in 1824. The guitar was very popular in Vienna at that time, and Schubert was also fond of it; the original version of Die schöne Müllerin was published with guitar accompaniment! Guido Balestracci and the musicians of L’Amoroso have built a delightful Schubertiad around this famous sonata, combining the arpeggione and the piano with voice and guitars to appropriate a rich selection of the Viennese composer’s lieder.

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