Mauro Giuliani, Johann Nepomuk Hummel
Grand pot-pourri national op. 93 per chitarra e pianoforte
edited by Emiliano Castiglioni and Mariangela Marcone

(Instrumental Music, 11)

XXII, 52 (terzina guit. and pf score), 18 (guit. part), 52 (modern guit. and pf score) pp.; 29,7 x 21 cm
Introduction and Apparatus in Italian and English

Mauro Giuliani wrote five duos for guitar and piano. The Grand Pot-Pourri National, Opus 93 is a medley of songs and dances from several European countries, conceived in the Restoration climate brought about by the Congress of Vienna. Giuliani, then living in Vienna, wrote it for terz guitar, with Johann Nepomuk Hummel’s help for the piano part, and premièred it on May 26th, 1817 with Ignaz Moscheles at the piano. It was published in 1817-18 in Giuliani’s catalog and in 1819 (as Opus 79) in Hummel’s, when the guitarist was at the peak of his popularity and activity as a performer and composer.
While the guitar part displays the typical features of Giuliani’s technique and style, the piano part shows a harmonic complexity that is unusual for him, suggesting that Hummel was a real co-composer, not a mere arranger. In the early 19th-century genre output, the Grand Pot-Pourri stands out for its breadth and complexity but is nonetheless effective and enjoyable. It does not reach — nor does it try to — the formal complexity of the Grand Duo Concertante, which Giuliani wrote and performed in Vienna with Moscheles by the same years.

Emiliano Castiglioni. Graduated in guitar at the Giuseppe Verdi Conservatory, Milan, under Aldo Minella and continued his studies under Oscar Ghiglia at the Music Academy, Basel (Switzerland), obtaining a soloist diploma in 2001. He attended master classes by Alberto Ponce, Stefano Grondona, Frédéric Zigante and Ghiglia himself at the Accademia Chigiana, Sienna, where he got three degrees. He won major national and international guitar competitions; these include the Fernando Sor Prize, Rome, the Benvenuto Terzi Prize, Bergamo, the Ebe Cazzaniga Ansalone Prize, Abbiategrasso, the City of Parma Prize, the City of Mottola Prize, and the Nicola Fago Prize, Taranto. He also graduated in music education, choir conducting, and piano at the Milan Conservatory and in mathematics at the Insubria University, Como. He currently gives solo guitar and chamber ensemble concerts, being widely appreciated for its original renditions of Bach and the Baroque/Classic repertoire in general. He currently teaches guitar at the Musical Studies Institute, Sienna.