Search - Giulio Regondi, Johann Kaspar Mertz :: Giulio Regondi: Airs Variés; Rêveries; Johann Kaspar Mertz: Polonaises; Rondino

Mellow and pleasant, if not substantial

E. Weed | Houston, TX | 01/09/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"We call it the "classical" guitar, although, ironically, there is a relative paucity of good quality literature for the instrument from the classical/early romantic period. Years ago when I was studying the instrument in music school, Fernando Sor (1778-1839) was one of the best known composers for the guitar from that period, and I played, with some pleasure (though no great brilliance) a number of his pieces.



I gave up the classical guitar for jazz and other activities, but in recent years have been keeping my eye out for "new" 19th Century guitar composers. I'd heard Mertz's name, but not Regondi's, and saw a relatively favorable review of this CD somewhere, so picked it up to try.



Ricardo Gallen is a very fine guitarist, who plays a lovely rich and woody sounding guitar that is a copy of a 19th Century guitar. He's very well recorded in a somewhat dry acoustic.



Based on this CD, I don't think Mertz and Regondi are "knock your socks off" composers. They seem less interesting, harmonically, than Sor, although their sound world is somewhat similar. (The back liner note mentions Chopin and Mendelssohn as influences, but there's no comparison, to my ears.)



For me, this is a very nice CD on a slow Sunday morning while idly glancing at the newspaper, or for a quiet candlelit supper. I would rank David Russell's explorations (on Telarc) of somewhat later composers as, overall, more engrossing and satisfying. But this is definitely a CD with which I will spend more time."