Guitarist David Starobin has recorded six rarely heard sonatas by Wenzeslaus Thomas Matiegka, performed on a Viennese guitar. Born in 1773 in Bohemia under the rule of the Habsburg empire, Matiegka studied the pianoforte in Prague. In the early 1800s he moved to Vienna, where he circulated among an elite group of musicians. He made a name for himself as guitarist, composer, and piano teacher, and dedicated several of his early chamber works to Franz Schubert. Starobin regards Matiegka’s sonatas as “in their time, the pinnacle of expression on the guitar, offering the most detailed notation of both articulation and character—a clear window onto performance style in the era of Beethoven and Schubert.”
Matiegka: Six Guitar Sonatas – David Starobin
