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11/21/2024
“Complete Guitar Sonatas”
Francesco Molino: Trois sonates faciles, opus 1 [1] – Trois sonates, opus 6 [1] – Trois sonates, opus 15 [2] – Grande sonate très brillante, opus 51 [2]
Recording: SoundMakers Studio, Rome, Italy (June [1] & October 2023 [2]) – 102’43
Brilliant Classics 97092 (Distributed by Naxos of America) – Booklet in English and Italian
 
Arguably some of the most unjustly neglected solo guitar repertoire of the early nineteenth century is Francesco Molino’s Opus 6, published around 1820 and consisting of three sonatas. As far as I know, this is the first commercial recording of any except the second sonata. These are not virtuosic works, but they show a natural, dramatically effective, and idiomatically Classical feel for sonata form, often joined to an inspired sense of melody. I would take either of the first two Opus 6 Sonatas over, say, Sor’s Opus 15, which may sport the more sophisticated surface but has some awkward melodic writing (Sor to my mind was never much of a melodist) and a rather unimaginative development section. Neither problem comes up in Molino’s Opus 6. The first Sonata, in D major, is furthermore distinguished by a central Andante that is almost Mozartian in its totally un‑cloying charm. In spite of its brevity and simplicity, I would count it as one of the gems of guitar writing before 1850. Much of this music feels right out of the world of The Magic Flute, and given the paucity of guitar works by the really great composers, this is a very good thing.
The performances, alas, leave something to be desired. Claudio Giuliani has a perfectly solid technique—not that these works are apt to tax any professional guitarist—and a pleasant tone, but he is inexpressive and rhythmically square too often here. There is too little contrast in color and dynamics, and above all too little humor. These unassuming works have plenty of latent personality, but the player has to seek it out, and Giuliani seems content to put one foot ahead of the other much of the time. He tends towards a bland dignity where the music wants to be scampering.
Like Claudio Giuliani, Francesco Molino had his limitations, as particularly evident in his handling of theme-and-variations form, where, somewhat oddly, he tends to operate at a much lower pitch of melodic inspiration. These movements, most of them found in the other works that round out the set, are often banal and lacking in dramatic or expressive variety. This is especially obvious in the third Opus 6 Sonata, which consists of an engaging sonata-form movement followed by a much less engaging theme and variations. The three sonatas of Opus 15 suffer for their lack of true sonata movements. The two longest, the first and the third, consist of largely forgettable variation movements flanked by an “Introduction” and a “Rondo”. The single Sonata of Opus 51 goes straight from a slow introduction into a substantial concluding rondo, and while I don’t think (in spite of its fancy title) it matches the best of Opus 6, it works rather well on its own terms, with more melodic and especially harmonic invention than Opus 15. In Opus 15 and 51, as in the student works of Opus 1, the atmosphere is much more bel canto than Mozart, and so even where the music is more inspired (mostly in Opus 51), there is less than in Opus 6 to distinguish Molino from the more famous guitarist-composers of his day. Giuliani for his part seems somewhat more engaged in Opus 51, but not to the music’s benefit, as he sometimes plays up the music’s latent sentimentality rather than suppressing it with extra vigor and flexibility.
I realize the appeal of completeness in a case like this, but for pure musical value, I would have dropped Opus 1 and most or all of Opus 15 and added some of Molino’s lovely stand‑alone Préludes as filler. The quality of the material is too inconsistent to justify two stingily filled discs. More imaginative and energized interpretations could surely have helped, though. It’s nice to have Opus 6, of course, but it, too, deserves better advocacy than it gets here.
Samuel Wigutow
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