The first album dedicated to a Bavarian contemporary of Schubert, featuring a trio of easy-on-the-ear serenades in new recordings, played by an experienced Italian ensemble with a track record of success in reviving forgotten corners of 19th-century salon music. Joseph KÃ¼ffner (1776-1856) trained as a lawyer but studied the guitar and violin in his spare time. No ordinary 'amateur' musician, he performed concertos by Viotti and Mestrino in public, and in due course became a teacher of those instruments, then a regimental band leader; by the age of 30 he was a court musician for Archduke Ferdinand. Two years later, in 1808, his own music was first published - a set of dances for violin and guitar - but many of his surviving pieces remain in manuscript, including seven symphonies. Most of KÃ¼ffner's music, however, was composed for his own instruments, and tailored with an eye and ear to a lucrative domestic audience. Some 25 pieces are scored for the combination of flute, viola and guitar heard on this new album, most of them serenades, fantasies or pot-pourris, all unfailingly well-crafted and cheerful in temperament. Having read through most of them, the Classico Terzetto Italiano has to record three of the most delightful. Op.4 is, unusually, cast in a minor key, though hardly tragic in mood. Op.10 is dedicated to the Grand Duke of WÃ¼rzburg: a tribute from one military man to another, and quoting a march from a then-popular opera, Kreutzer's LodoÃ¯ska. Op.15 includes a witty minuet and what sounds like a homage to Mozart closing with a virtuosic Galop which tests the guitarist's technique with it's brilliant figuration.

Tracklist:

UPC: 5028421963198
Label: Brilliant Classics
Release Date: 7.23.21
Format: CD

Kuffner / Classico Terzetto Italiano - Serenades For Guitar Flute (CD)