Guitar Music?

[Amphissa]

...no he didn't. He wrote mandolin concerti very often played on the guitar, but wrote nothing for the guitar specifically.

You are right.

[JimL]

...no he didn't. He wrote mandolin concerti very often played on the guitar, but wrote nothing for the guitar specifically.

You are right.

Sure about that?  I think that the lute is more likely.  The mandolin has a different range and tuning, I think.  Is not most lute music transcribed for guitar nowadays?  Most of the Vivaldi mandolin concertos I've heard are performed on the...mandolin.

[Amphissa]

 
Paganini Wow, I had forgotten about Paganini. Although remembered for his violin prowess, he was a guitar virtuoso as well. He wrote sonatas specifically for violin and guitar, quartets that included guitar, and assorted other guitar pieces. In fact, since he was not really adept at the piano, much of his composing, even for violin, was done with guitar to assist.

Cello concertos also get played on guitar and some violin concertos as well. Classical and Baroque period music often plays well on guitar. Boccherini, Bach, Albinoni, Handel, etc. I've heard Bach's Brandenburg concertos, concerto for two violins, etc, on guitar. Back then, they weren't written specifically for guitar of course. My bad on the Vivaldi. I'm just so used to Vivaldi music on guitar that I forget that is wasn't originally written for guitar. Scarlatti sonatas are also a favorite for classical guitar. Telemann, etc. Transcriptions, of course.

[JimL]

D. Scarlatti sonatas in particular get transcribed for guitar a LOT!

[TerraEpon]

[Sure about that?  I think that the lute is more likely.  The mandolin has a different range and tuning, I think.  Is not most lute music transcribed for guitar nowadays?  Most of the Vivaldi mandolin concertos I've heard are performed on the...mandolin.

Both actually. I for some reason was thinking RV 93 (by FAR the most popular of Vivaldi's pieces usually played on Guitar) was a mandolin one, but it's a lute one.
Looking at the list now, I see his only solo mandolin concerto  was RV 425, and a lot of guitarists have recorded it (http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/albumList.jsp?name_id1=12652&name_role1=1&comp_id=3389&genre=1&bcorder=195). Same with the double mandolin concerto RV 532 (http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/Drilldown?name_id1=12652&name_role1=1&genre=1&bcorder=19&comp_id=3381)

[monafam]

I'm certainly taking all of this in.  I have one of Hovanesses (it's good, but I almost didn't get it because of how he uses the guitar in a specific Symphony -- No. 39?) and I'm pretty sure I've saved one of Rodrigos on a wish list I have.

This is not in the "unsung" (or specificaly Romantic vein) category, but I did get Terry Riley's "The Book of Abbeyozzud" which is actually really good -- apparently nothing like the works he is famous for.

Thanks as always!

[Yavar Moradi]

I just wanted to back up TerraEpon and say that the (Elmer) Bernstein guitar concerto, played by Christopher Parkening on the only current recording (and the LSO conducted by Bernstein himself), IS FANTASTIC. One of the composer's best works, in my opinion, and that's saying something. It easily holds its own among the best of Villa-Lobos, Castelnuovo-Tedesco, even Rodrigo. Everybody here should buy it.

Yavar