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The two souls of Niccolò Paganini Most people’s knowledge of the life and work of Niccolò Paganini does not extend much beyond the tales of his eccentric personality and his extraordinary gifts as a violinist. While it is certainly true that he was one of the greatest virtuoso players of all time, simply to remember him as the musician who effectively shaped the very concept of virtuoso playing would be extremely reductive. Paganini was also an excellent composer, and although much of what he wrote was intended for his own purposes (‘To play what others write would involve adapting it to my manner: it takes me less time to write the piece myself, giving full rein to my own musical feelings’), his output clearly revealed two different characters: on the one hand, that of the violinist with a tendency towards exhibitionism, continually bent on achieving sensational effects; and on the other, the refined musician who wrote for friends and acquaintances accustomed to playing in domestic ensembles, a far cry from the crowded concert halls in which Paganini met with such wild acclaim. Moreover, during these music-making occasions, Paganini often abandoned the violin to play with great skill his other chosen instrument: the guitar.

The pieces recorded on this disc reveal both aspects of the great Genoese musician’s character: though substantially different in terms of compositional structure, the Six Sonatas Op.2 MS26 and the Sonata concertata in A Op.61 MS2 (both of which were originally written for violin and guitar) provide insights into the composer’s more private side, and the atmosphere of the chamber ensemble; by contrast, the Sonata per la grand viola in C minor MS70 is a piece that was conceived and written for concert performance before a wider audience ready to be astonished and delighted by the player’s skill.

The recording also helps underline important historical aspects relating to the instruments involved: on the one hand there is a deliberate focus on Paganini’s lifelong love for the guitar, which he played with the same technical mastery he showed on the violin; and on the other, the various transcriptions reveal to what extent he helped expand the viola repertoire. Paganini himself held this latter instrument in great 2

consideration, in this sense paving the way for the eminent viola players of the 20th century, such as William Primrose and Lionel Tertis, who strove to adapt some of the great musical masterpieces originally written for other string instruments for the viola.

Within the sphere of Paganini’s prolific chamber output, the guitar is almost always part of the ensemble, albeit with roles that vary from one occasion to the next. In the six Sonatas MS26 the six-stringed instrument is largely used to support the viola in timbre and harmony, while the latter instrument is entrusted with virtuoso developments of a certain importance. Various scholars have argued that the high level of technical skill required in the left hand and in the bowing suggests that the works also embody didactic intent, not least in view of the fact that Paganini dedicated the six compositions to his friend and pupil, Agostino Dellepiane. To bring this technical content to the fore, the Sonatas MS26 (composed in the early 1800s and published by Ricordi in 1820) reveal a fairly linear formal structure and are each divided into two movements, one slow and the other fast. Thus it is evident that for Paganini a sonata was simply a ‘piece to be played’ that did not have to relate directly to the formal framework of the classical sonata. Instead, these pieces embody a distinct reference to opera, the musical genre that dominated the Italian musical scene of the time and that exercised considerable influence over Paganini. Italian opera made its presence felt in all of Paganini’s compositions – not just in the Sonatas MS26, but in all of his music – as can be heard in his handling of melody, which resembles the use of cantabile in opera, and in the brilliant passages that have much in common with the virtuoso parts typical of Italian belcanto.

The Sonata concertata was composed in 1803 and dedicated to Emilia Di Negro, who was related to the Marchese Di Negro, a patron of many artists, including Paganini himself. Divided into three movements, the piece reveals greater continuity with the classical sonata tradition, despite the many innovative formal features and the inventive use of harmony and melody. Typical of Paganini’s creativity, the piece is conceived as a proper duet, a dialogue in concerto form between the guitar and the viola in which 3

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melody and virtuoso brilliance are evenly and elegantly distributed throughout. The transcription adopted for this recording brings to the fore the intrinsic balance of the work: the contiguity of the two instrumental registers intensifies the two parts, with alternation, overlapping and assimilation of the two different timbres, neither of which prevails over the other. The outcome is a sound tapestry of great intimacy, especially the melancholic, almost fatalistic Adagio assai espressivo, which conveys a feeling of deep poignancy, in distinct contrast to the vivacity of the initial Allegro spiritoso (sonata-like in form, though only the second subject returns in the finale) and the festive brilliance of the Rondeau at the end.

‘This won’t do! There’s not enough in it for me; I need to play all the time’: such was Paganini’s peremptory reaction on receiving a piece for viola and orchestra that he had commissioned from a composer he admired, his friend Hector Berlioz. Clearly he was disappointed because his aim had been to show off in public his ‘marvellous Stradivarius viola’. In any case, the Sonata per la grand viola was performed for the first time in London in 1834 by Paganini himself, who proceeded to enchant the audience with an instrument that was not his usual violin. Although the work was conceived as a concerto, there was also an original version with a guitar accompaniment. Paganini often used the guitar to experiment with harmonic passages before working out the definitive orchestration. In this particular version, the two different aspects of the composer’s personality seem to blend together: the specific sound quality of the guitar creates the intimate atmosphere of a chamber work, whereas the viola plays a distinctly virtuoso role, very much in keeping with Paganini’s ‘transcendental virtuoso’ violin playing. The work consists of one movement divided into three sections, and comes across rather as an opera aria. First there is the intense, domineering Recitativo, followed by an expressive, peaceful Cantabile, which in its turn gives way to what could be described as a cabaletta: a series of three variations on the theme of a Rossini-like Andantino in which Paganini brings to the fore the entire palette of the viola’s technical and virtuoso potential. Audacious intervals in chords, extremely fast passages, insistence on the lower chords and the consistent use of harmonics all contribute to the celebration 4

of the instrument itself, and indeed the performer’s skill. For the record, it is also interesting to note that the musical material prepared by Berlioz for Paganini later found its way into the symphony (with viola obbligato) Harold en Italie, which the violinist was to applaud and admire a few years later. 훿 Vittoria Fontana Translation: Kate Singleton

Le due anime di Niccolò Paganini Della vicenda umana ed artistica di Niccolò Paganini gli aspetti solitamente più noti sono quelli relativi alla sua eccentrica personalità e quelli concernenti le sue stupefacenti doti di violinista, tali da renderlo universalmente conosciuto come uno dei maggiori virtuosi di tutti i tempi, in grado di modificare la concezione stessa del virtuosismo strumentale. Tuttavia, è opportuno ricordare che Niccolò Paganini fu anche un eccellente compositore e, nonostante la musica da lui composta fosse principalmente a suo diretto ‘uso e consumo’ (‘Per suonare quelle [composizioni] degli altri bisognerebbe che le accomodassi alla mia maniera: faccio più presto a scrivere un pezzo nel quale lascio piena libertà al mio sentimento musicale’), la sua produzione artistica mette a confronto due anime ben distinte: da un lato quella dell’istrionico violinista, continuamente alla ricerca del sensazionale e dello stupefacente, dall’altro quella del raffinato musicista che scrive per amici e conoscenti, ovvero per contesti più intimi e familiari, totalmente distanti dalle affollate sale da concerto dove veniva osannato.

Inoltre, non va dimenticato che, proprio in questi contesti privati, Paganini il più delle volte abbandonava il violino per suonare con indiscutibile perizia l’altro strumento a cui fu da sempre e per sempre legato: la chitarra.

I brani contenuti nel presente cd rivelano proprio queste due anime del grande musicista genovese: mentre, pur con sostanziali differenze a livello di struttura compositiva, le Sei Sonate Op.2 MS26 e la Sonata concertata in la Op.61 MS2 5

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(scritte in origine per violino e chitarra) consentono di esplorare il lato più privato, più cameristico appunto, della personalità artistica di Paganini, dall’altro lato, la Sonata per la grand viola in do minore MS70 è un brano scritto e pensato per essere eseguito di fronte ad un pubblico più ampio, un pubblico da stupire ed entusiasmare anche grazie alle sue abilità di violista.

Inoltre, attraverso le opere qui incise, vengono sottolineati importanti aspetti storici connessi agli strumenti utilizzati. Se da una parte viene ribadito ed esplorato lo stretto legame che Paganini ebbe durante il corso della sua intera esistenza con la chitarra (strumento che padroneggiava tecnicamente tanto quanto il violino), contestualmente, per merito delle trascrizioni effettuate, si assiste ad un significativo ampliamento del repertorio della viola (a cui Paganini si interessò alquanto), in ideale prosecuzione con la corrente inaugurata da William Primrose e Lionel Tertis, importanti violisti del Novecento che vollero regalare al proprio strumento la possibilità di eseguire alcuni grandi capolavori dell’arte musicale scritti in origine per altri archi.

All’interno del nutrito ed originale corpus cameristico paganiniano, la chitarra è pressoché sempre presente in organico, assumendo di volta in volta funzioni differenti.

Nelle sei Sonate MS26 lo strumento esacorde è impiegato principalmente come sostegno timbrico-armonico della viola, la cui parte presenta, al contrario, un impegno virtuosistico di una certa rilevanza. Secondo molti studiosi l’alto livello di abilità tecnica richiesto sia alla mano sinistra che nella condotta dell’arco potrebbe sottintendere un intento didattico: Paganini, infatti, volle dedicare le sei composizioni all’amico ed allievo Agostino Dellepiane. Proprio per far emergere tale impegno tecnico, le Sonate MS26 (composte nei primi anni del 1800 e pubblicate da Ricordi nel 1820) presentano una struttura formale piuttosto lineare e sono suddivise in due movimenti, lento e veloce. Ciò conferma come per Paganini una sonata fosse semplicemente un ‘pezzo per essere sonato’ senza alcun legame con l’impostazione formale di stampo classicista. Piuttosto questi brani rivelano l’innegabile e mai celato riferimento al melodramma, genere dominante sulla scena musicale italiana dell’epoca, da cui Paganini fu estremamente influenzato. Nelle Sonate MS26, così come nel complesso 6

della sua produzione artistica, l’ascendenza dell’opera lirica italiana risulta evidente, sia nei momenti più cantabili, del tutto assimilabili agli analoghi brani di un melodramma, sia in quelli più brillanti, paragonabili alle parti virtuosistiche tipiche del belcanto italiano.

Composta nel 1803 e dedicata ad Emilia Di Negro, parente del Marchese Di Negro, mecenate di molti artisti tra cui lo stesso Paganini, la Sonata concertata si pone in maggiore continuità rispetto alla tradizione sonatistica classica (ad esempio è suddivisa in tre movimenti) pur presentando elementi del tutto nuovi, sia a livello formale che armonico-melodico, confermando l’inesauribile creatività di Paganini. Il brano è concepito come un vero e proprio duetto, un dialogo concertante tra chitarra e viola, in cui linea melodica e virtuosismo sono omogeneamente ed elegantemente distribuiti.

Tale equilibrio è posto ancor più in risalto dalla trascrizione qui proposta: la contiguità dei due registri strumentali esalta maggiormente le parti concertanti, in cui i due timbri si avvicendano, si integrano, si sovrappongono senza mai prevalere uno sull’altro, creando invece un’immagine sonora di grande intimità. Come ad esempio nel malinconico e rassegnato Adagio assai espressivo, che trasmette un senso di profonda commozione, in netto contrasto con la vivacità dell’Allegro spiritoso iniziale (strutturato in forma sonata, pur con il solo secondo tema ripreso nel finale) e con la festosa brillantezza del Rondeau conclusivo.

‘Non ci siamo! Io taccio troppo a lungo; occorre che io suoni sempre’: in modo tanto perentorio reagì Paganini al brano sottopostogli da Hector Berlioz, di cui il violinista era amico ed ammiratore e a cui aveva commissionato un brano per viola ed orchestra, rimanendone tuttavia deluso. Egli infatti intendeva valorizzare in pubblico la sua ‘meravigliosa viola Stradivari’: nacque così la Sonata per la grand viola, eseguita per la prima volta a Londra nel 1834 da Paganini stesso, che per una volta incantò la platea con uno strumento diverso dal violino. Tuttavia, per quanto si tratti di un brano pensato come un concerto, della Sonata esiste anche una versione originale con accompagnamento di chitarra, strumento di cui Paganini si serviva per sperimentare i passaggi armonici prima di procedere alla vera e propria orchestrazione. In questa 7

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particolare versione le due anime di Paganini sembrano così fondersi: la specifica sonorità della chitarra crea l’atmosfera raccolta di un brano cameristico, mentre alla viola viene affidato un ruolo prettamente virtuosistico, assimilabile in tutto e per tutto al ‘virtuosismo trascendentale’ violinistico caratteristico di Paganini. Strutturato in un unico movimento suddiviso in tre sezioni, il brano pare impostato come un’aria da melodramma: al perentorio ed intenso Recitativo introduttivo segue un espressivo e pacifico Cantabile, da cui prende le mosse quella che potremmo denominare la cabaletta: una serie di tre variazioni sul tema di un Andantino di gusto rossiniano in cui Paganini mette in risalto tutte le possibili risorse tecnico-virtuosistiche della viola.

Impervi salti di corda, passaggi velocissimi, insistenza sulle corde gravi ma anche prolungato utilizzo degli armonici sono finalizzati all’esaltazione dello strumento e dell’esecutore. Per dovere di cronaca, occorre ricordare che il materiale musicale predisposto da Berlioz per Paganini confluì nella sinfonia (con viola obbligata) Harold en Italie, assai applaudita ed ammirata dal violinista pochi anni dopo. 훿 Vittoria Fontana Simone Gramaglia started his musical studies at the age of five on the piano and the recorder, and went on to become a consummate performer on the latter. At the age of 16 he took up the viola, having been inspired by a concert given by renowned Italian violist Bruno Giuranna. He then studied at the Conservatorio ‘Niccolò Paganini’ in Genoa, where he was taught by Luigi Brusini. After graduating with honours, Simone continued his studies and perfected his solo technique at the Accademia Stauffer in Cremona with Bruno Giuranna, as well as studying with Michael Kugel in Ghent and Maastricht, and attending masterclasses with Serge Collot and with Yuri Bashmet at the Accademia Chigiana in Siena.

In 2000, while studying at the Accademia Stauffer, Simone formed the Quartetto di Cremona. The Quartetto became his main focus, and together they studied with Piero Farulli in Fiesole, Hatto Beyerle in Basel and at the European Chamber Music Academy in Hanover, as well as attending masterclasses at ProQuartet in Paris with 8

Paul Katz and Rainer Schmidt. The Quartetto di Cremona went on to launch their career, achieving great recognition at international competitions including Cremona, Heerlen, Melbourne and Vittorio Gui, among others.

During his career, Simone has collaborated with artists such as Angela Hewitt, Cho-Liang Lin, Hatto Beyerle, Lilya Zilberstein and Bruno Giuranna. He has performed at the most prestigious concert halls, including the Lincoln Center in New York, Konzerthaus Berlin, Wigmore Hall in London, Parco della Musica in Rome, NCPA in Beijing, and the Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires. Simone’s regular chamber music partners are the pianist Roberto Plano and the guitarist Luigi Attademo, featured on this disc. Both his chamber and solo repertoire includes composers from the Classical and Romantic periods (Mozart, Paganini, Schumann, Brahms) as well as the 20th century (Britten, Shostakovich), and particular areas of interest include rarely performed Italian composers (Giorgio Federico Ghedini) and contemporary ones (Silvia Colasanti and Fabio Vacchi).

As part of the Quartetto di Cremona, Simone is artist-in-residence at the Società del Quartetto di Milano, where he has performed the complete Beethoven Quartets.

The cycle is now being recorded by the record label Audite. Both as a soloist and with the quartet he has also recorded with Decca, and his concerts have been broadcast worldwide (ABC, BBC, RAI Radio 3, WDR, Deutschland Radio, WQXR New York).

Since 2011, Simone has taught String Quartet Studies at the Accademia Stauffer in Cremona. The Quartetto di Cremona also give masterclasses in several European countries, as well as in Asia and the USA. Simone teaches on the Master4Strings course in Genoa, focusing on viola and chamber music repertoire.

Simone is a member of the European Chamber Music Academy, founded by Hatto Beyerle, and of the European Chamber Music Teachers Association. He plays on a viola made by Gioacchino Torazzi of Turin, Italy, c.1680–1720, kindly loaned by the Kulturfonds Peter E. Eckes. www.simone-gramaglia.blogspot.it

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An award winner in several national and international competitions, including the Concours International d’Exécution Musicale (CIEM) in Geneva (1995), Luigi Attademo studied under the guitarist and composer Angelo Gilardino. He has been invited to perform at several festivals and has premiered many contemporary works, with his playing having been broadcast on the Italian networks RAI and Rete Toscana Classica. His teachers have included Julius Kalmar (conducting), Giovanni Guanti, Dušan Bogdanovic´ and Alessandro Solbiati (composition), and the harpsichord player Emilia Fadini (Baroque music).

Having been awarded his Doctorate in Philosophy with a dissertation on musical interpretation, he went on to publish a book on this subject. He regularly contributes to several specialist music magazines. He previously worked in the archive of the Andrés Segovia Foundation (Linares, Spain), cataloguing the composer’s manuscripts (later published in the Spanish guitar magazine La Roseta); it was through this work that he discovered some unknown manuscripts by major composers, such as Jaume Pahissa, Alexandre Tansman and Gaspar Cassadó, among others. He has recorded several CDs that focus on Baroque repertoire and the music of Andrés Segovia, and in 2007 Guitar Review dedicated an interview and a CD to his works. In 2010 he gave concerts in London, Madrid and Australia, performing contemporary music, as well as working on his two projects dedicated to Heitor Villa-Lobos and Segovia. In 2011 he focused instead on Paganini and his music, as well as J.S. Bach and his contemporaries.

He teaches at the Istituto Superiore di Studi Musicali ‘Gaetano Donizetti’ in Bergamo (Italy), and he is often invited to lecture at the Geneva and Lausanne Conservatories. In 2010, 2011 and 2013 he was invited to give a lecture-recital at the Royal Academy of Music in London.

Following his collaboration on a CD recording of Scarlatti Sonatas released in 2009, in 2011 he made a double CD dedicated to the lute music of J.S. Bach, both on the Brilliant Classics label (94613 and 94294 respectively). In 2012 he released a book and accompanying CD inspired by Paganini, Paganini 2013, published by Sinfonica Editions and comprising various contemporary music for guitar. He was also involved in a play 10

dedicated to J.S. Bach’s music, Studio sullo stile di Bach, inspired by Pier Paolo Pasolini’s writings on the composer and directed by Laura Croce. In 2013 he released a recording of Paganini’s complete music for guitar on Brilliant Classics (94348). www.luigiattademo.it

Special thanks to Michael Kugel, who kindly allowed his cadenzas in the Sonata per la grand viola to be played.

Recording: 22 & 24 February 2014, Auditorium of the Cassa di Risparmio di Firenze, Florence, Italy Sound engineer: Marzio Benelli Artistic director: Cristiano Gualco Viola: Ansaldo Poggi, 1952 Guitar: Antonio Emilio Pascual Viudes, 1927 Artist photos: 훿 Roberta Ardito (Gramaglia) & 훿 Ilaria Costanzo (Attademo)  & 훿 2015 Brilliant Classics

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