SOUVENIR DE BOVIO

Autor: E. Zerega

Edición: Alison Stephens

Para: Mandolina y guitarra

Nivel: Intermedio

Información:

Little is known about Zerega except that he was a Spaniard who spent some time in London between 1895 and 1897 conducting a mandolin and guitar ensemble.
Souvenir de Bovio is the only piece of his that I have any knowledge of. It appears to have been originally written for mandolin and piano but adapts so directly for mandolin and guitar that the suspicion must be that he had the guitar in mind when writing the piano part.
Although essentially simple, it is a beautifully lyrical but dramatic piece that in many ways sums up the typical style of both playing and writing for the mandolin across the turn of the 20th Century. It is one of a handful of pieces that helped to convince me of the instrument’s beauty when listening to a recording from 1960 of Hugo D’Alton playing it with Clifton Helliwell on piano. It was the first mandolin recording I ever owned.
Alison Stephens
The piece can be heard in this arrangement on the 2009 CD Souvenirs (CHAN10563) played by Alison Stephens (mandolin) and Craig Ogden (guitar).