Casarini: 24 Etudes for Guitar Adriano Sebastiani

• Stefano Casarini (1954- ): 12 Grandes études:
• 1 I. Comodo e cullante 03:19
• 2 II. Largo e cantabile 02:20
• 3 III. Ostinato e incisivo ma sempre flessibile 03:05
• 4 IV. Cantabile 03:01
• 5 V. Allegramente 03:43
• 6 VI. Un poco rubando 02:57
• 7 VII. Con leggera malinconia 02:46
• 8 VIII. Leggero e legatissimo 02:44
• 9 IX. Poco mosso con largo respire 02:23
• 10 X. Un poco ostinato 02:01
• 11 XI. Sostenuto, con espressione 02:39
• 12 XII. Tempo giusto, ben ritmico 02:31
• 12 Petites études:
• 13 I. Vivace e giocoso 01:15
• 14 II. Un poco agitato 01:07
• 15 III. Allegretto, con grazia 01:13
• 16 IV. Mosso ed energico 01:01
• 17 V. Andante, con espressione 01:02
• 18 VI. Allegro poco, con leggerezza 01:38
• 19 VII. Andante sostenuto 02:10
• 20 VIII. Calmo e ben legato 01:44
• 21 IX. Poco mosso e dolente 01:38
• 22 X. Allegretto, un poco languido 01:36
• 23 XI. Larghetto, con serenità 02:03
• 24 XII. Leggero e legato 01:08
• Total Runtime 51:04

Info for Casarini: 24 Etudes for Guitar

Born in 1959, Stefano Casarini has composed an extensive library of concert and educational music for the guitar for different levels of accomplishment. The 12 Grandes Etudes and 12 Petites Etudes recorded here are designed for professional or at least highly accomplished musicians, full of technical challenges yet satisfyingly musical in their own right. The idiom is tonal but modern, often reflective in mood, using repeated motifs which owe something both to the guitar tradition and to Minimalist music.

As Adriano Sebastiani remarks in his booklet notes to this new recording, Casarinis compositions are highly distinctive, never banal, certainly idiomatic and always to the point. By the same token they can also be intrepid, and inclined to create evocative atmospheres and states of mind that can convey deep feelings.

This is Adriano Sebastianis fifth album for Brilliant Classics, after well-received recordings where he accompanies singers in music by Dowland (BC94480), Spohr (BC94274), Weber (BC95323) and Rossini (BC94628). Thus he brings to Casarinis music a natural feeling for its Romantic character and easy melodic flow. The album also joins an expanding and valuable collection of studies for guitar on Brilliant Classics, including two collections of Easy Studies (BC95402, BC95557) and volumes dedicated to Sor (BC94791), to Gangi (BC95204) and Gilardino (BC8886), among others. This is the projected first volume of a series designed by Sebastiani to bring Casarinis compositional voice to an international audience and to give a more complete picture of the stylistic variety, the value and beauty of his music.

Stefano Casarini (born 1954) is one of the most remarkable guitarists and guitar composers of present day Italy. Standing in a long line of tradition of the great guitar composers of his country he writes bold, evocative and deeply felt music, expertly written for his instrument.

His 24 Etudes, here recorded for the first time, are highly challenging studies, using all facets of techniques, well integrated in eloquent musical forms.

Excellent performances by guitarist Adriano Sebastiani, friend and fan of the composer.

Adriano Sebastiani, guitar

Adriano Sebastiani
Active as a performer, musicologist, recording artist and teacher, Italian classical guitarist Adriano Sebastiani is recognised as one of the most important Italian and international experts of guitar discography, history, literature and chamber music. He studied the art of the guitar in Italy: in Florence with Alvaro Company (pupil of Andrés Segovia) and in Rome with Bruno Battisti D’Amario, obtaining his Masters degree in Guitar Performance at the prestigious Conservatory of Music San Pietro a Majella, Naples – the oldest music Academy in Italy. At the same time he completed his cultural education, obtaining his scientific high school Diploma and then a second Masters degree in Agricultural Science at the University of Florence. Recently he obtained his third Master Degree in Musical Pedagogy at the Conservatory of Music “Luigi Cherubini” in Florence. He later attended guitar masterclasses held by acclaimed artists of the lute and guitar world like Leo Brouwer, Sérgio and Odair Assad, Dušan Bogdanovic, Ralph Towner, Oscar Roberto Casares and Hopkinson Smith. As part of a guitar duo he has won four first prizes in national and international competitions. Sebastiani has performed as a soloist and in chamber ensembles and with orchestras in Italy, Europe, Russia and the USA, and has collaborated with singers, violinists, string trios and quartets including Antonia Brown, Silvia Vajente, Siphiwe McKenzie, Stephen Harland, Leonardo De Lisi, Ingolf Turban, Dora Bratchkova, Bin Huang, Franco Mezzena, Fedor Kabelskii, Marco Fornaciari, Antonello Farulli, Dimitri Illarionov and the Boccherini Ensemble. His wide-ranging and varied repertoire includes original music for guitar of different periods and styles, the unique compositions of Ralph Towner, works for guitar and orchestra, lute music and many other chamber music works. Since 1975 Sebastiani has devoted himself to the study and collection of rare bibliographic and musical sources concerning the history of, and repertoire for, the guitar. As a musicologist he continues to collaborate with the most important international guitar magazines, including?Guitar Review (New York), Il Fronimo and Seicorde (Milan), Soundboard (California) and Guitart (Naples), rediscovering and publishing several important works for and with guitar for the following publishers: Suvini Zerboni of Milan, Berben of Ancona, Philomele of Geneva, and Tuscany Publications of Tampa (U.S.A.). He has also edited the catalogue of Paganini’s compositions for the book Nicolò Paganini, Il Cavaliere Filarmonico by Edward D.R. Neill. His most recent publication is the co-authored book Andrés Segovia e il suo repertorio, published by Grafos of Genoa.

His recordings include an acclaimed set of twenty-one discs. Sebastiani is the first guitarist in the world to have recorded the complete works for violin, viola, mandolin and guitar, and the complete trios for strings and guitar by Paganini, a collection of songs for voice and guitar by Schubert, the complete works for voice and guitar by Giuliani, and a selection of songs for voice and guitar by Carulli. Among his latest albums are solo guitar music by Dušan Bogdanovic ?, Ralph Towner and Paganini. Bogdanovic and Towner, as well as composers Oliviero Lacagnina, Stefano Casarini, John Hall, Joan Yakkey, Anthony Sidney and Riccardo Riccardi, have all dedicated new works to him. He recently signed a contract with the label Brilliant Classics; his two first releases on this label have been dedicated to the complete songs for Voice and Guitar of Louis Spohr (94274) and to the Italian Ariettes by Gioachino Rossini (94628). Sebastiani plays guitars by the Sicilian luthier Antonino Scandurra, Tuscan luthier Luciano Maggi and American luthier Alan Stewart Wilcox. He has taught at the ‘Luigi Boccherini’ Institute in Lucca and at the ‘Luigi Cherubini’ Conservatoire in Florence. He is also head of the guitar department at the Liceo Classico ‘F. Petrarca’ in Arezzo (Tuscany).?

Booklet for Casarini: 24 Etudes for Guitar