Giulio Regondi

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Giulio Regondi lithograph by Josef Kriehuber , 1841

Giulio Regondi (* 1823 in Geneva ; † May 6, 1872 in London ) was a composer , concert star and guitarist .

Life

Nine-year-old Giulio Regondi at a concert at the Royal Adelphi Theater in London (1831)

Giulio Regondi was born in late March or early April 1823 to a German mother and an Italian father in Switzerland, grew up in Lyon and spent most of his life, from 1839, in England.

As a child, Regondi was encouraged by his father to practice on the guitar for hours every day, so that he was able to make his first appearances as a child prodigy at the age of five. In 1830 Regondi gave a concert in Paris with Niccolò Paganini and Franz Liszt , in 1831 Fernando Sor dedicated his Fantaisie Souvenir d'amitié (Op. 46) to the only eight-year-old "Jules Regondi" . In the same year Regondi came to England, where he appeared with Catherina Josepha Pelzer, who later became known as Madame Sidney Pratten . In order to be able to see the children better on stage, they made music while standing on a table. When Regondi played alone, his chair was sometimes placed on the piano.

Also in 1831 Regondi met the instrument maker Charles Wheatstone and his English Concertina in London , which he learned so quickly that he was able to give concerts in Ireland as early as 1834 and 1835.

From 1840 Regondi undertook two concert tours to the mainland, including Vienna. Josef Zuth quotes the Allgemeine Musikische Zeitung : “R. plays the guitar and melophon in the most perfect mastery imaginable, and sings on the latter instruments with a truly enchanting loveliness and indescribable delicacy ... The solo movements performed were on the guitar: Souvenir de Gubellins to Thalberg, and the overture of the Semiramide, full-bodied, as from the whole The orchestra sounds. ”The" Melophon " quoted by Zuth was actually a concertina, and Regondi is still referred to as" the great concertina virtuoso of the 19th century ". Regondi's virtuosity inspired other composers to write for the concertina. B. Bernhard Moliques "Concerto for Concertina and Orchestra" (London, 1853).

In December 1840 Regondi acquired an eight-string guitar from Johann Anton Stauffer in Vienna , which he used from then on. A concert tour to Germany followed in 1846. Until the end of the 1860s Regondi gave concerts and concertina lessons in London, where he died in 1872, just 49 years old, after a long history of cancer.

plant

Regondi wrote vocal music, chamber music and composed for guitar and concertina as a solo instrument, with an emphasis on compositions for the concertina. He also wrote a textbook for the concertina ( New Method for the Concertina . Dublin, 1857).

The guitar work consists of various solo pieces and ten etudes (Dix Etudes):

  • Simon Wynberg (Ed.): Giulio Regondi, Complete Works for Guitar . Chanterelle, Monaco 1981, contains four (out of ten) Etudes and Op. 19-23 as a facsimile
  • John Holmquist (Ed.): Giulio Regondi, 10 Etudes for Guitar . Editions Orphée, Columbus Ohio 1990

A modern recording of the guitar work is available from Leif Christensen ( Giulio Regondi, Guitar Works . PAULA 10, Feb. 1981).

literature

  • Helmut C. Jacobs : The young guitar and concertina virtuoso Giulio Regondi: a critical documentation of his concert tour through Europe in 1840 and 1841 . Bochum 2001 ISBN 3-924272-06-9
  • Helmut C. Jacobs: "Giulio Regondi" in: The Music in Past and Present , Volume 13, Kassel 2007, pp. 1443–1445
  • Douglas Rogers: Giulio Regondi: Guitarist, Concertinist or Melophonist? A reconnaissance . Guitar Review, Vol. XCI (Fall 1992), pp. 1-9; Vol. XCII (Winter 1993), pp. 14-21; Vol. XCVII (Spring 1994), pp. 11-17

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e Helmut C. Jacobs: "Giulio Regondi" in: The music in history and present , Volume 13, Kassel 2007, pp. 1443–1445
  2. ↑ Facsimile (PDF; 284 kB) in the Rischel & Birket-Smith Collection, Copenhagen
  3. ^ Graham Wade: A Concise History of the Classic Guitar. Mel Bay, Pacific 2001, p. 92
  4. ↑ Frank Mott Harrison: Reminescences of Madame Sidney Pratten. Bournemouth 1899, p. 20
  5. ^ The Times, June 16, 1831, Issue 14566, p. 3
  6. ↑ Josef Zuth: Simon Molitor and the Viennese Guitarist (around 1800), Goll, Vienna, 1920 Online ( Memento of the original from July 22, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on www.guitaronline.it @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.guitaronline.it
  7. ^ Allan W. Atlas: The Victorian Concertina: Some Issues Relating to Performance . Nineteenth-Century Music Review, Vol. 3, No. 2, 2006, pp. 33-61
  8. ^ Leif Christensen: Giulio Regondi (1822–1872) and his guitar works. In: Guitar & Laute 3, 1981, 6, p. 30 f .; here: p. 31.
personal data
SURNAME Regondi, Giulio
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Composer, guitarist and concert star
DATE OF BIRTH March 1823 or April 1823
PLACE OF BIRTH Geneva
DATE OF DEATH May 6, 1872
Place of death London