Don’t expect strong emotions with this sunny, elegant, unpretentious, well-crafted music. Nicknamed “The Paganini of the guitar”, Mauro Giuliani, who was born near Bari and died in Naples after spending many years in Vienna, was a virtuoso with tremendous technical abilities but conventional inspiration as a composer. David Russell’s program is well chosen and cleverly played, in a way that brings out the tiniest sparkles of expression from these five charming works. His subtle rubato and refined touch, allied with an effortless digital fluency, allows the music to sound constantly interesting and lively. Though idiomatically written for the six-string instrument, the Grande Ouverture shows some thematic affinities with Beethoven’s early piano sonatas. The two lengthy medleys on themes from Rossini’s operas will amuse belcanto fans (“Guess the origin of this aria!”) and guitar buffs alike, while the two Sonatas represent examples of perfectly assimilated Viennese classicism. Even if there is little true heroism in the Sonata Eroica, Giuliani’s expert writing somehow manages to make the guitar sound bigger than usual, and he’s helped at it by Russell’s contrasted dynamics. Finally, the Sonata in C major and its exquisite Adagio con grand’espressione evokes the composer’s radiant homeland, through gentle rhythms and relaxed melodies.
