Konstantin Vassiliev: Enchanted Albion after Henry Purcell’s “Fairest Isle”
Florent Aillaud: Eeriest Isle after Henry Purcell
Gabriele Caselli: Hommage à Henry Purcell

Works awarded at the International Composition Competition for Classical Guitar “Michele Pittaluga” (Alessandria, September 2020)

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The 12th “Michele Pittaluga” International Competition for Guitar Composition, which I am honoured to direct, included the presentation of a composition containing at least one quotation from the aria “Fairest Isle” by Henry Purcell, taken from the semi-opera King Arthur.
It is quite by chance that the three winning composers of the competition well represent those who write for guitar today. On the one hand, we have two guitarist composers: the Siberian Konstantin Vassiliev, who already enjoys solid international fame, while Florent Aillaud is on his first public appearance as a composer and belongs to a very strong generation of young French guitarists. On the other hand, we have just a composer, not a guitarist, Gabriele Caselli, who joins the long list of composers who, since the early twentieth century, have allowed themselves to be seduced by the evocative and mysterious sound of the guitar.
The musical forms, too, are variously represented in this selection. It starts from “Hommage à Henry Purcell”, a lyrical, enchanted piece, by Gabriele Caselli and, through the five-movement suite, “Eeriest Isle after Henry Purcell” by Florent Aillaud which, despite the mathematical speculative aspects of the construction of the work, presents a valuable and communicative exploitation of the sound of the guitar, we reach “Enchanted Albion” by Konstantin Vassiliev, the winning composition in the competition, which is a fantasy of considerable instrumental difficulty using a structure of intervals of Purcell’s theme without any reference to its original historical or musical context.
I am proud to offer the performers, together with my friend Andrea Schiavina, these three new compositions for guitar in a splendid editorial format.
(Frédéric Zigante)

Author: Konstantin Vassiliev (*1970) - Florent Aillaud (*1993) - Gabriele Caselli (*1980)

Publication Date: 11/22/2021

Pages: pp. 32

Size: 230x310 mm

Binding: Saddle stitching

ISMN: 979-0-2153-2739-9

Code: CH 365