GIULIANI vs VYSOTSKY // Marko Erdevicki 6 & 7-string guitar

This is a live (edited) performance of me, from Bergen Kulturnatt, held on September the 14th 2018 in a wonderful historical venue of Håkonshall. In this video I wanted to juxtapose, in my opinion, the two greatest virtuosos from the first decades of the 19th century - Mauro Giuliani (1781-1829) on the 6-string guitar and Mikhail Vysotsky (1791–1837) on the so-called Russian 7-string guitar (). For this purpose I have chosen to switch between selected variations on the same theme by both composers, which is a Cossack song, Ekhal Kozak za Dunai, otherwise known as Schöne Minka. Giuliani’s has the title Variations on a Russian theme, although the newer history looks at it as an Ukrainian tune. According to Matanya Ophee, in the early part of the nineteenth century, Russian folk music played the same role in Western Europeian society as did the music of Spain. It had a certain flavor of exoticism. I open with the theme by Giuliani followed by the theme by Vysotsky and keep switching between the two composers, showing some of the most virtousic variations. Although the Russian 7-string guitar with it’s opened G tuning ( D’, G’, B, d, g, b. d’) has it’s unique harp-like sound qualities, I find lot of similarities with the 6-string guitar of the time in terms of techniques, articulations, use of left hand thumb, legato (slurs) glissando, right hand fingering pattern etc. I am playing Giuliani on my anonymous viennese guitar from the middle of the 19th century (FOR SALE) and Vysotsky on a wonderful historical guitar by the most prominent Russian guitar maker from the same period, Ivan Krasnochekov that is kindly lent to me by The International Academy for Russian Music, Arts, and Culture (IARMAC) and it’s artistic director Oleg Timofeyev who was in the same time my mentor in discovering this repertoire. Many thanks! This video is made completely in my own production but I want specially to thank to cameraman Inge Krossøy If you are interested in discovering more music for the 19th century guitar and particulary Russian 7-string guitar along with standard repertoire for the classical guitar, please subscribe to my channel so we can keep in touch :) Sincerely yours, Marko Erdevicki