The album cover here, with the composer and the work designation physically separated, is a bit confusing. This disc offers "sonatas" -- in the general sense, for they are all suites of dances -- by the Italian Baroque guitarist and composer Ludovico Roncalli, a shadowy figure active in Bergamo at the end of the seventeenth century. They show up from time to time, either complete or often in excerpts, on classical guitar recitals; limpid minatures, they make for relaxed interludes between the flashier numbers that are the ...
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The album cover here, with the composer and the work designation physically separated, is a bit confusing. This disc offers "sonatas" -- in the general sense, for they are all suites of dances -- by the Italian Baroque guitarist and composer Ludovico Roncalli, a shadowy figure active in Bergamo at the end of the seventeenth century. They show up from time to time, either complete or often in excerpts, on classical guitar recitals; limpid minatures, they make for relaxed interludes between the flashier numbers that are the guitarist's stock in trade. This recording by California-based Baroque guitarist Richard Savino, playing a copy of a Stradivari instrument (people forget that he built guitars, too), has much to offer guitar specialists and enthusiasts; recordings of a group of Roncalli sonatas aren't common, and Savino's notes discuss tuning issues and bourdon use (a bourdon is a string in a double course tuned to a lower octave, in case you were wondering; the term is not defined in the booklet,...
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