Dear Friends,
Azica Records has released my latest CD, Matiegka, the Beethoven of the Guitar. It is an introduction to the solo music of the little-known Wenzeslaus Matiegka (1773-1830), who I believe to be possibly the most important 19th-century guitar composer.
In a recent review of my Mel Bay DVD, Classics and Discoveries, Soundboard magazine wrote: "David Leisner's Classics and Discoveries would be worth its price it if only included the first work, Matiegka's Sonata in b minor. It is a marvelous work in three energetic movements. I was not familiar with the composer beyond a few rather routine chamber works, so hearing this was a revelation. Leisner is to be congratulated for championing the composer."
Matiegka's music reveals a masterful command of the large form, complexity of counterpoint, richness of harmonic progression, musical imagination and invention, and above all, a forward-moving sense of development that easily surpasses, in my opinion, all of his guitar contemporaries. While Matiegka surely did not possess the genius of Beethoven, he was Beethoven's analogy in the world of the guitar: just as the great composer occupied a position of central importance to the piano literature of his time, so were the works of Matiegka the pre-eminent guitar compositions of his generation.
This Azica CD contains 2 brilliant Sonatas, the sublime slow movement from another Sonata, a colorfully inventive set of Variations, 3 charming Minuets and a divinely simple Etude.
My debut LP from 1979 helped to launch the contemporary reputation of the then-little-known Johann Kaspar Mertz. It is my hope that this CD will do the same for Wenzeslaus Matiegka. Enjoy!
With best wishes,
David
David Leisner website: http://www.davidleisner.com
Commenti