GIOVANNI GUZZO

Violinist

I’m a huge fan of Fritz Kreisler – for violinists, he is one of our gurus. The most magical thing about him is that, in a way, he makes you forget that he’s playing the violin and it becomes almost like a human voice. Every time I go back to his recording of Beethoven’s complete violin sonatas, it gives me such a human perspective of what lies behind the notes, and what Beethoven was trying to say. There is something so magical about it.

It was such a wild choice of conductor Carlos Kleiber to record Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde with soprano Margaret Price – she was the big Mozart singer of her day, but she brings something so honest and powerful to the role of Isolde. But the most striking thing about the recording is the way that it is so alive. At some points it becomes a monster, at others it is this most tender thing and it’s almost like they’re singing to you in your living room.

The Sicilian cellist Giovanni Sollima is a bit of a rock star – he does a lot of crossover repertoire while also being a specialist in Italian Renaissance and Baroque music! He’s a fantastic composer as well, and a lot of the music on his Caravaggio recording is by him. The recording reflects Caravaggio in that, as well as being a little controversial, it portrays a very deep feeling of pain and emotion shown through beautiful aesthetics.

I’ve only recently discovered John Mayer’s Where the light is, which is a live recording. Mayer is a fantastic guitarist, and also a great story-teller through his voice – it’s a very clean, clear voice. What he does harmonically with his songs is so interesting, and quite close to what we do in classical music. He

doesn’t just take a chorus line that is catchy, repeat it three or four times and there’s your song, but develops themes in a fascinating way. Giovanni Guzzo’s new recording of Ysaÿe’s Sonatas (Rubicon Classics), will be reviewed in a future issue.