Johann Kaspar Mertz
Johann Kaspar Mertz (1806–1856) was an Austrian guitarist and composer whose romantic character pieces and concert fantasias remain central to the nineteenth-century guitar repertoire.
Born in Pressburg (now Bratislava), then in the Austrian Empire, he was active mainly in Vienna from about 1840 and toured as a virtuoso through Central and Eastern Europe. He signed publications and programmes with the initials J. K.
His lasting contribution is the series of character pieces Bardenklänge (Bardic Sounds), alongside large concert fantasias that brought a romantic, pianistic sensibility to the solo guitar. Selections from Bardenklänge and the Fantaisie Hongroise appear on Move recordings of nineteenth-century and later guitar repertoire.
Compositions by Johann Kaspar Mertz appear on
In Flight
Classical guitarist Harold Gretton offers a varied programme spanning some three centuries of solo guitar music, from Sylvius Leopold Weiß in the eighteenth century to his own Australian bird-inspired pieces of the twenty-first.
Fairy Tales, Monsters and Wild Animals
Made for young and old, Meredith Connie’s solo guitar performances on this recording have enchanted audiences across two continents, evoking fantastical worlds and speaking to classical and non-classical listeners alike.