In the early nineteenth century, when the virtuoso guitar concerto was born, Italy and Spain produced their share of outstanding musicians who were, like British inventions, more likely to prosper outside their homeland: Sor and Aguado left Spain, Carulli and Molino departed from Italy; all four converged on Paris where, no doubt with much exaggeration, the rivalry of the supporters of the last two was depicted in a cartoon. Molino has derived negligible posthumous benefit from recording or concert performance, nor has Carulli done much better, the spotlight resting doggedly on some of their contemporaries.
Whether it was Giuliani (who decamped from Italy to Vienna and finally fled in the opposite direction) or Carulli who wrote the first virtuosic guitar concerto, we do not know, but whereas all three of the former's have been recorded, only Carulli's Op. 8a has been thus honoured—for, it must be said, its historical rather than its musical significance. That his Concerto in E minor has been passed over in its favour says more for the follow-my-leader programming habits of guitarists than anything else, for it is a much superior work—as is also Molino's in the same key. Pepe Romero is to be congratulated for bringing to light some of the fatter fish in this small pond. The smallness of the pond is illustrated by the inclusion of two arrangements of violin/orchestra works by Mozart; they are of course far less difficult for the guitarist than are the concertos, but their musical superiority is inversely proportional. Romero's fine tone and cultured delivery almost succeed in concealing the fact that the guitar does not have the violin's sustaining power.
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