Legnani: Fantasia Op. 19 on Classical Guitar
The Fantasia Brillante e Facile per la Chitarra Sola in A major, Op. 19 by Luigi Legnani is one of the most exhilarating works from the golden age of the classical guitar. Published in 1828 or earlier by Johann Andre in Offenbach, it distils the vocal brilliance of early Romantic bel canto into a single arc-shaped movement: a lyrical introduction that erupts into fast, precise virtuosity.
Luigi Legnani
Luigi Legnani (Ferrara, 7 November 1790 - Ravenna, 5 August 1877) belongs to the generation that built the classical guitar's first international concert career alongside Mauro Giuliani and Dionisio Aguado. A trained operatic tenor who debuted in Ravenna in 1807, he turned to the guitar professionally in Milan in 1819 and within a few years dominated concert halls in Vienna, Germany, and Switzerland. He formed a close personal friendship with Niccolo Paganini -- they toured together in 1836-37, with Paganini composing violin-guitar duets for their joint performances and describing Legnani as 'the leading player of the guitar of the time.' Legnani left approximately 250 works, chief among them the 36 Caprices Op. 20 modelled on Paganini's violin caprices. After 1860 he retired from performance and became a luthier, collaborating with Johann Georg Stauffer in Vienna on the influential screw-neck Legnani-model guitar.
Read more: Luigi Legnani -- The Guitar's Answer to Paganini
The Fantasia
The subtitle 'Brillante e Facile' -- brilliant and easy -- was a conventional early 19th-century sales formula that consistently understated the actual demands. The Fantasia requires articulate melodic passagework, wide register contrasts, sudden dramatic outbursts, and ornamental harmonic colours typical of Legnani's guitar writing. The form is a single-movement fantasia: a slow lyrical introduction followed by a fast 'Brillante' main section. The score is freely available on IMSLP (public domain).
Notable Performances
- Pavel Steidl -- Naxos 8.554198, on a 19th-century gut-string guitar (1998)
- Judicael Perroy -- featured in Classical Guitar Magazine
- Isaac Bustos, Doris Cosic, Irina Kulikova -- each documented on This Is Classical Guitar
- Shiqi Zhou, aged 13 -- performed this work on a 2013 Pepe Romero guitar; Bradford Werner described 'amazing layered dynamics and confident articulations'
Performed at Siccas Guitars
Shiqi Zhou, winner of 3rd Prize at the 2024 Andres Segovia International Guitar Competition, performed at Siccas Guitars on a Siccas Luthiers Creation doubletop spruce classical guitar.
See all piece articles: Famous Classical Guitar Pieces
