Mauro Giuliani: Ariette. Lieder & Cavatine

The Swiss tenor Felix Rienth performed at major festivals, like Ambronay, Paris, Ghent, Lisbon, Granada and recorded more than 20 CDs.

Mauro Giuliani was known throughout the music world as the "Mozart of the guitar". After completing his studies in his home town in Italy, he lived for a long time in Vienna, where he worked as a successful guitarist, composer and teacher. Not only did he write over 100 works there, he was also a master cellist. It is said that in 1813 Giuliani was one of the cellists at the first performance of Beethoven's Seventh Symphony, conducted by the composer himself.

The vocal works recorded on this recording testify to Giuliani's preference for Italian songs. Especially in the Sei Ariette or "Little Arias", a more modest form of the opera aria, the resemblance to the Italian bel canto aria is unmistakable. The selection presented here, published in 1818 in Vienna, is dedicated to the Empress Marie-Louise. The texts were all written by Pietro Metastasio, the undoubtedly most important opera librettist of his time.