Credits:

Rafael La La Joine and Marco Crosette.

Description:

In 1796, Beethoven visited Prague with his patron, Karl Alois von Lichnowsky, and met Josephine Clary-Altringen, the daughter of a high ranking local aristocrat. As a musician who enjoyed singing and playing the mandolin, Beethoven wrote a number of works for mandolin and piano for her. Four of these pieces have been handed down to the present day. Because they were written in her youth and for amateurs, all of them are familiar and lovely pieces that do not have Beethoven's strong personality, but are very interesting to listen to as a side of the great composer. The album also includes a sonata by Italian mandolin virtuoso Bartolomeo Bortolazzi, who performed throughout Europe at the time, with his brilliant technique and Northern Italian lyricism, and a magnificent sonata by Hummel, who also wrote a mandolin concerto. The Neapolitan mandolinist La Ragione has already released several albums, but this is his first for the ARCANA label.The mandolin used is a rather small instrument with four single strings, named after the Brescia region in northern Italy near Bortolazzi's birthplace (or Cremonese). The instrument, tuned in the same way as the well-known Neapolitan mandolin, is freely handled, and more than adequately conveys the interest of the work and the charm of the simple but lustrous instrument. Crosset, who plays fortepiano, is the leader of the ancient instrument ensemble "La Vaghezza," and is an award-winning ensemble and soloist who has attracted attention as an ancient music keyboard player. Naxos Japan