In the hands of Stefano Maiorana, clearly an unfettered, masterly musician, every track on this recording illuminates the possibilities of the baroque guitar. If you are already a fan of this instrument, or even if you’ve not heard much of its repertoire, this recording will rock your world, as it did mine! This one goes on the top shelf.

Jim McCutcheon

Tipps der Woche…”Mit gran­dioser Grazie”. Grazie Stefan Sell e Crescendo!

Mit gran­dioser Grazie

Entre dos almas – Between two souls – features the music of the Spanish guitarist and composer Santiago de Murcia (1673-1739) in performances by Stefano Maiorana on Baroque guitar.

The two souls are Spanish and Italian, the latter especially representing the influence of Arcangelo Corelli in Madrid. The two major works here are both Murcia’s transcriptions of Corelli: the Sonata in E Minor from Op.5 Nos.5 & 8; and the Sonata in C Major Op.5 No.3. Only the first and last movements of the latter survive, so Maiorana has supplied his own transcriptions of the middle three.

The eight individual pieces are an absolute delight, with a lively opening Fandango and a terrific Tarantelasparticular highlights. Maiorana plays with an effortless technique and with complete freedom in a beautiful but quite different sound world that is just bursting with life. Some additions and arrangements are apparently by Maiorana, but his experience renders them completely undetectable.

Terry Robbins

Stefano Maiorana […] non si limita a eseguire con grande perizia le opere originali del musicista madrileno e le trascrizioni che questi fece di alcune sonate del maestro di Fusignano, ma con grande sapienza, estro e pirotecnico virtuosismo le coniuga e le interpola con fantasiose e brillanti improvvisazioni che accendono il fuoco dell’esecuzione. Ecco così che le nobili volute barocche sono immerse inaspettatamente nelle brucianti atmosfere del flamenco.
Coinvolgente.

Marco Riboni, Amadeus 5/5 stelle

[…]Mr. Maiorana puts his own imprint on this fandango, dazzling us with colorful displays of rasgueado and cascades at breakneck tempo. He has also taken the liberty of adding a middle section that he co-opted from a manu- script recently discovered in Tenerife and attributed to Domenico Scarlatti (1685–1757). The following track, “Folías Ytalianas,” continues in this vein, by turns tuneful and pyrotechnic. The contrast between the Spanish dances and the pieces of Italian pedigree is obvious, as we hear in the Corelli sonatas that occupy tracks 3–6 and again tracks 11–15. It deserves mentioning that Santiago supplied a short movement of his own to the first of these sonatas (track 5, “Despacio”).Mr. Maiorana devotes significant space in the CD’s accompanying booklet to explaining the many personal choices he has made in animating this music. Indeed his interpretive finger- prints are nearly everywhere on the disc. The imagination and technical prowess required to achieve such results is remarkable, and his playing is consistently engaging, often thrilling to hear. The intrinsically Spanish pieces, particularly “Tarantelas” (track 8), “Canarios” (track 10), and “Jácaras” (track 16), are performed with a full measure of Iberian spice, including sections that are purely percussive. The beginning of “Jácaras” is a simple sequence of chords that Mr. Maiorana interprets in a compelling, slightly modern pop-music fashion. Everything about this recording is absolutely right. The performances are captivating and the recording quality absolutely top-notch, portraying a natural and detailed sound-signature with a dead-silent noise floor. Mr. Maiorana’s clear and precise technique retains its composure no matter how spirited the music becomes. We listeners are given new insights into what the baroque guitar is capable of[…]No matter how familiar you are with the baroque guitar, this is an eye-opener of a recording, so please do take the trouble to find it.

Howard Kadis

Belén Estival

Reseña de «Entre dos almas» (Stefano Maiorana, guitarra barroca) , por Belen Estival

Après un très bel enregistrement consacré à Kapsberger (Kapsberger : Intravoltura, chez Fra Bernardo, 2016), Stefano Maiorana nous revient cette fois-ci à la guitare baroque, instrument qu’il maîtrise sans conteste, pour un disque consacré à Santiago de Murcia. Plus précisément, c’est la relation entre les musiques espagnoles et italiennes dans la musique de Murcia qui est mise en évidence ici. L’influence de la musique italienne sur celle d’Espagne se fait sentir par les transcriptions qui circulaient. Ainsi Murcia adapta le recueil des Sonates opus 5 de Corelli pour violon et basse continue à la guitare baroque. Toutes ces transcriptions ne nous étant pas parvenues, Maiorana s’est chargé de compléter celles des mouvements manquants de la Sonate n’ 3 dans le style de Murcia, faisant montre de son excellente connaissance du style. Les Folias Ytalianas sont un autre exemple de cette influence, qui profite de la virtuosité de Maiorana. Prouesses techniques, délicatesse du jeu, les pièces s’enchainent et nous transportent, tant notre guitariste maîtrise le sujet.

Laurent Duroselle

Thank you Rafael de Acha!

“In his album ENTRE DOS ALMAS for Outhere Music Stefano Maiorana, an immensely accomplished Renaissance and Baroque specialist brings solid technique, keen musicality and intense temperament to the guitar music of Santiago de Murcia and Arcangelo Corelli: two kindred souls enriching one another by way of Maiorana’s exquisite artistry.”

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