The acclaimed Italian guitarist Gianluigi Giglio makes his debut on SOMM Recordings with The 19th Century Guitar, a scintillating recital of music by Fernando Sor, a pioneering champion of the guitar in the vanguard of raising it's profile out of the tavern and into the concert hall. Giglio's wide-ranging recital explores Sor's innate feeling for the guitar and charts the increasing demands he placed on the instrument in a body of work that transformed it's standing with public and pundits alike. From the early Op. 9 masterpiece that charted a new and expressive landscape for the guitar - Introduction and Variations on a Theme by Mozart - to the late Elegiac Fantasy (Op. 59) with it's leanings towards newly-emerging Romanticism, this is a textbook display of the instrument's many abilities given eloquent voice by a master guitarist. Other notable pieces include the Introduction and Variations on 'Malbrough s'en va-t-en guerre' (Op. 28), a deliciously knowing exercise in re-creating 18th-century style, the possibly unique programmatic caprice Le calme (Op. 50) and the no less singular �tude The movement of a religious prayer from the Op. 31 24 Progressive Lessons for Beginners which is distinguished by it's beautiful sense of polyphony. Gianluigi Giglio plays a guitar made by the noted Parisian luthier Ren� Lac�te in Paris in 1834. SOMM's previous recordings of Fernando Sor include Eros Roselli's recital Studies for Guitar (SOMMCD 021) and 12 Seguidillas performed by Craig Ogden on a disc of Spanish Songs featuring soprano Patricia Rozario (SOMMCD 078).