As part of Women's History Month, we focus our attention on a new recording featuring three women: 19th-century guitarist/composer Emilia Giuliani, Italian guitarist Federica Artuso, and musicologist Nicoletta Confalone.
This album presents the complete guitar works of Emilia Giulini, the daughter of the famous Mauro Giuliani, who popularized the guitar as a concert instrument. Her compositions show the influence of Italian opera, with an emphasis on variations on arias by Rossini and Bellini. "Amazing deeds and performances on the verge of acrobatics" is how Emilia Giuliani's virtuosity was described by her contemporaries. When she appeared on the concert stage with Franz Liszt in Naples, critics admired her as "every finger a Liszt!"
Included with the 2-CD set is a booklet with an essay by Confalone on Emilia Giuliani's life and contributions, and one by Artuso about Giuliani's approach to guitar performance. For the recording, Artuso performed on a guitar handcrafted in 1830 and with similar qualities to the one portrayed in the portrait of Giuliani featured on the album cover.
We hope you enjoy these new discoveries this week on Classical WETA.