La ROMANESCA, fameux air de danse de la fin du XVIème siècle arrangé POUR LE VIOLONCELLE avec accompagnement de 2 violons, alto, violoncelle et contrebasse avec sourdines OU PIANO, tel qu'il a été exécuté par Fr. Servais dans ses concerts à Vienne. This is the title as displayed in the edition of Servais's La Romanesca. In the present recording, it is the piano accompaniment version that has been chosen and the cello part is here played on the arpeggione, this Viennese bowed guitar for which Schubert had written in 1824 his Sonata in a minor D821. Since the historical repertoire for arpeggione is limited to the Schubert Sonata, the arpeggione player nowadays can transcribe music which was primarily intended for other instruments. I liked the idea of playing Servais's La Romanesca on arpeggione for several reasons; the idea of the old "Romanesca" dance evokes in my mind the accompaniment of old instruments such as the lute, but also Spain, Watteau, or the guitar world in general; Servais played this piece as an encore in Vienna in 1842 not long after the public presentation of the arpeggione, and there must have been in the audience people who attended both concerts; the encore played by Servais was described by the historical critique as not being a display of effects but rather a simple piece "speaking from the heart to the heart": isn't it precisely what happens when the arpeggione and the historical fortepiano play together? The fortepiano played here by Alain Roudier is a Conrad Graf from 1828 (collection of the Association Pianoforte Ad Libitum). The arpeggione has been built in Brussels in 2001 by Benjamin Labrique. It is the same arpeggione that has been used in my recording of the Schubert arpeggione sonata with Paul Badura-Skoda in 2006 (release 2007, Fuga Libera). Nicolas Deletaille, August 2012 --------------------------------- Recorded in january 2012 Sound engineer: Luc Henrion Editing: Nicolas Deletaille Fortepiano preparation and tuning: Francis Duverney Cover from a picture by Jean Marc Renaud Special thanks to Marc Feller, the Association Pianoforte Ad Libitum.