Sonatas for Baroque Guitar – LUDOVICO RONCALLI: Sonatas Nos. 1, 2, 3, 5, 7 & 8 – Richard Savino, Baroque guitar – Dorian DSL-90804, 55:47 ****:
These are a half dozen sonatas from a set which Roncalli published in 1692, titled Harmonic Caprices. It was one of the last works published for the five-course baroque guitar, which was slowly being supplanted by the modern Spanish guitar. The works are well known to modern classical guitarists, but there has been no recording of them on the baroque guitar. The instrument played by Savino is copied from a Stradavari original.
The tone is quite different from a modern guitar – more wiry and with less bass support, but also more expressive and possessed of a curiously enjoyable timbre which seems perfectly suited to these suites. (They are, by the way, organized in terms of key signatures, similar to series of works by Bach and others.) Each has from five to seven very short movements, usually based on the traditional dance forms of the time – Alemanda, Gigua, Gavotta, etc. Wonderful clarity in Dorian’s pickup of the guitar.
– John Sunier
