Küffner: Serenades for Guitar, Flute & Viola
Joseph Küffner (1776-1856) was born in the Franconian-Bavarian city of Würzburg where his father was the court music director. Küffner studied violin and served as a member of the Ducal Orchestra as well as a soloist. Besides the violin, he was proficient on the harpsichord, piano, organ, clarinet, basset horn and guitar. He later was appointed Military Music Director of Bavaria. His works for military band were so well thought of that for several decades the Armies of the Bavaria marched to his music. He wrote over 300 works in all genres, of which the bulk were for chamber ensembles and which were extraordinarily popular during his lifetime. Küffner's works for guitar, flute and viola - often entitled Serenade - number at least twenty-five. They have either three or four movements or are set in the form of a fantasy or a pot-pourri. This corpus of trios no doubt belongs to the most prominent chamber music of the entire guitar repertoire: delightful, charming and cheerful music, full of good tunes and popular dance forms. Played by the Classico Terzetto Italiano, founded in 2005 by Ubaldo Rosso, Carlo De Martini and Francesco Biraghi, specializing in works for this unusual combination of instruments.