GuitaREvolution 1640
The Music of A.M. Bartolotti

Karl Wohlwend, five-course Baroque guitar

This program explores the impact of Bolognese guitarist, Angiol Michele Bartolotti. In 1640, while under the employ of a duke with ties to the Medici family, Bartolotti published his Libro primo di chitarra spagnola. This landmark work includes perhaps the very first set of pieces written in all twenty-four major and minor keys. The audacity and invention exhibited in this collection resonates throughout the 17th century European guitar scene. The program includes works by Bartolotti from the Libro primo, as well as his second book, published in 1655 in Rome. Music by his contemporaries Giovanni Foscarini and Francesco Corbetta are included to provide context and his far-reaching impact is shown in later works by Spanish composers Gaspar Sanz and Santiago de Murcia.