Francesco Molino: Guitar Concerto in E minor, Op.56, Pepe Romero (guitar)

Francesco Molino - Concerto for guitar & orchestra in E minor, Op.56, Pepe Romero (guitar), Academy of St Martin in the Fields, Iona Brown (conductor),
Recorded: 1989-06-21
I. Allegro maestoso – 00:00
II. Tema con due variazioni (Maestoso molto) – 12:10
III. Rondo (Allegro) – 17:22

Francesco Molino (also known as François Molino) (4 June 1768 – 1847) was an Italian guitarist, violinist, and composer.
„Molino was born in Ivrea near Turin. He often travelled to Spain to give concerts. He was orchestral conductor during 1796-97. In 1820 he settled in Paris, where he was soon acclaimed both as a performer and composer on the guitar. Unlike many of the guitarists who settled or passed through Paris in that decade, Molina was to remain and to enjoy a long and apparently successful career as a teacher. In 1830 he published a guitar method.
Like Carulli, Molino was a versatile musician; he wrote chamber works and two violin concertos in addition to his guitar concerto. While he and Carulli differed somewhat in their technical approach to the instrument, both worked to place the guitar in the mainstream of the music world, performing with other musicians and other instruments as well as solo and both demonstrated a great facility in composing attractive, simple pieces for beginners and amateurs, making them popular teachers.
Molino's Guitar Concerto was published probably in the 1830's; the exact date is difficult to determine because Molino, like many of his contemporaries, preferred to act as his own publisher. The work consists of three movements, an Allegro maestoso, Tema con due variazioni and Rondo allegro, and was scored for two violins, two oboes (the orchestral parts stipulate oboes, but the title page mentions clarinets instead), two horns, viola and cello. The key is E minor, like Carulli's Op. 140, which it resembles in several aspects. Since it was composed at least a decade later, this similarity may well not have been coincidental.” (from Album notes by Richard M. Long)