The repertoire for guitar music experienced an extraordinary upturn in the first decades of the 19th century, which more or less coincided with an important development concerning the instrument itself. In addition to its five strings, the guitar received towards the end of the 18th century a further sixth string. In this new version, the guitar soon became very popular throughout Europe. And so it came that a considerable number of guitarists took to the stage, particularly in Spain and Italy, and coming from their respective country of origin, introduced guitar music to the great European metropolitan centres, especially Vienna and Paris. Thus these two cities became the most important production and distribution centres of this repertoire for almost half a century. Among the guitar composers and virtuosos were, among others, Mauro Giuliani, Ferdinando Carulli, Fernando Sor, Dionisio Aguado, Filippo Gragnani and Matteo Carcassi. Their names are associated with one of the most renowned epochs in the history of the guitar. Mauro Giuliani was probably the greatest guitarist and composer for the guitar in the 19th century. He was born in Bisceglie, near Bari, on July 27, 1781. We hardly know anything of his study years in Italy. However, at the end of 1806 we encounter him as an accomplished artist in Vienna, where he would later experience the most successful period of his career and where he became acquainted with Beethoven, Hummel, Moscheles and many of the most important instrumentalists and composers who were active in the capital city of Austria at the time. In 1813 for example, Giuliani played a part in the premiere of Beethoven's Seventh Symphony as cellist. Without a doubt, the composer from Bonn was an admirer of this Italian colleague, whom he always referred to with the greatest respect in his conversation notes. Giuliani worked together several times with Ignaz Moscheles and Johann Nepomuk Hummel, two composers and piano virtuosos who were very popular in Vienna at the time, and gave concert performances together with them which were very popular and greatly appreciated by all. Giuliani remained in the Austrian capital city until 1819, after which he returned to Italy. However, instrumental music was by no means as popular in his native country as compared to the other side of the Alps. Thus Giuliani was unable to continue his Viennese successes, despite the publication of a number of his compositions by Ricordi and other publishing houses. He died in Naples on May 8, 1829. As a very receptive man for artistic influences, Giuliani with much skill succeeded in combining the heritage of the Italian instrumental tradition of the 18th century, whose direct descendant he was, with the achievements of Viennese music culture, which at the time were among the most progressive in Europe. His works are written in the purest classical style, yet they also present grace and melodic spontaneity which are typically Italian. His repertoire includes over 150 catalogued works, as well as various other unnumbered or manuscript works. Among his most successful compositions are without a doubt the three concertos for guitar and orchestra, op. 30, 36 and 70, as well as several virtuoso and effective pieces for solo guitar such as, for example the Grand Overture op. 61 and the Sonata op. 15. In his compositions, Giuliani markedly extended the technical possibilities of the guitar, transforming it into a perfect concert instrument and liberating it from its limited role as an accompanying instrument given to it in the field of chamber music. The "orchestral role" provided by Giuliani, which, for example, is reflected in the aforementioned Grande Overture op. 61, becomes particularly apparent when the guitar is faced by a real orchestra. Together with Ferdinando Carulli, Giuliani was one of the first composers in the 19th century, perhaps even the first, to write a concerto for guitar and orchestra. This achievement was not without its risks and problems, as the guitar with its low volume level can easily be overpowered by a more weighty ensemble.
The Concerto No. 1 in A major op. 30 was presumably performed for the first time in Vienna on April 3, 1808 with the composer as soloist and is undoubtedly the best-known and most performed piece of the three solo concertos for guitar which Giuliani had composed. It was printed in two different versions in Vienna in 1810, an original version for guitar and strings and a second with additional wind section (Hummel was supposedly involved in this second version). It is as usual a work in three movements in a typical classical style, an illuminating example of the blending of Viennese Classic of Mozart's successors with the intellectual-humorous song-like manner characteristic of the best of Rossini. In the first movement, Allegro maestoso, in correct opening sonata form, we encounter a broad orchestra exposition of the Viennese style, which subsequently leaves the space entirely to the soloist, who is given two cadenzas instead of the customary one. Giuliani handles the orchestra with much sensitivity, makes sure that it never clashes with the guitar but rather accompanies it always in an very restrained manner. The second movement, Siciliana, is a charming Andantino in E minor, entirely imbued by delicate songfulness, in which some folkloristic ideas appear as if transformed into an elegant surrounding. The concerto ends with a piquant Rondò alla polacca, Allegretto, a true firework display of instrumental virtuosity.
The Concerto No. 2 in A major op. 36 was printed in 1812, two years after the op. 30 by the Artaria publishing house and is a composition which follows the previous concerto both in musical form and in the manner of instrumentation, and is also in Giuliani's favourite key of A major.
At the same time it differs from the previous work with a more complex, more introverted, eminently lyrical character. This already becomes apparent in the orchestra exposition of the introductory Maestoso, in which the song-like character of op. 30 gives way to a broken melody, pointing to a new sensitivity. Also the second movement, Andantino, an exceptionally delicate piece as regards tone, leaves behind the flattering notes of the corresponding movement in op. 30, in order to find a more subtle expressiveness. The Finale, Rondo - Allegretto, advances in a marching rhythm, however, not without virtuosity and progressive harmonies with quite modern use or chromatics.
