I have long desired to publish a CD with contemporary music for classical guitar. This recording project combines a range of works that have accompanied me for much of my musical life. It also allowed me to join once again with my friends Luciano, Marcello and Siegmund to create, as it were, a concert in the form of a CD. Some of the works included I first encountered as a set of ideas and drafts, others fell into my hands almost by accident. One could even say that I have come across these works while searching for what Fernando Pessoa calls 'landscapes, nowhere' and what Shakespeare refers to as 'There is a world elsewhere'. As for the title no.1, I would like to think that the journey will continue, with new places, sounds and emotions ... (Gisbert Watty) Fabrizio De Rossi Re - Venus’ song (2003) for flute, clarinet and guitar   Edizioni Rai Trade A new arrangement, a fresh perspective or re-invention of a musical work are expressions that can help us to understand the specific attitude of a composer during the moment in which he picks up the fragments of his musical memory and rearranges them in order to re-create a sonic object.  This process is of course not just simply about the making of an instrumentation or arrangement, but rather about the use of deformed, extended or even removed original materials as an initial palette of expression, similar to what happens in our memory when we try to hum a largely forgotten song.  This is the formation of an imaginary image of a thing that has existed for long time, which we have transformed into a figure that now exists inside ourselves—a figure that no longer has anything to do with the original.  Over the past few years I have often composed along these lines. An example is the composition An Imaginary Portrait for ensemble of historic musical instruments in which some materials from Il Libro delle Canzoni by Girolamo Frescobaldi (composed around 1630) are superimposed, injected, consumed and transformed in all sorts of manners. This has resulted in a sound world that is authentic and old, but also new and false. In this instance my starting point was the wonderful song of the German Renaissance Venus, du und dein Kind by Matthias Waissel (1592), an original composition for voice and lute. The work is a commission of the Theater of the City of Velbert (Germany) for the Neanderland Biennale 2003 and it is dedicated to trio altrove 1.3. (Fabrizio De Rossi Re) René Mense - Three Dances in the Abstract (1997 / rev. 2000) for solo guitar The ‘Three Dances in the Abstract’ are based on my experience as layman in a dance theatre company. I was particularly fascinated by dramaturgical processes that grew out of improvisation. The spontaneous movements and positions of individual dancers led to unexpected interactions, which often resulted in so-called movement choruses. In my own dances, the exposure of individual and distinctive characters in contrast to group constellations play a prominent role. Especially the first of the three pieces demonstrates clearly the clash of contrasting expressions and articulations. The canon-like sections passages point to the coming together of dancers, which could result in a group movement. (René Mense) Thomas Böttger - Stoa (2005) for guitar and piano Since antiquity the meaning of 'stoa' also includes a room used for teachings in philosophy and mysticism, where it is possible to contemplate and meditate. In correspondence with my own experience of being in a stoa on cyprus, this composition attempts to capture through musical means the associated mood, the thought processes, and emotions. The work dates back to 2005, and the combination of piano and guitar presented me with an interesting challenge, not in its own right, but as an integral part of the overall conception of the piece. This particular combination also allowed me to enhance the, in some regard, Mediterranean 'color' of the work. (Thomas Böttger) Thomas Reiner - Sweet-Spots, Version 2 (2006/2007) for flute, clarinet, and guitar The sweet-spots referred to in the title of the work are associated with resonance. This includes such things as the resonance between two instruments playing an octave apart, the resonance between a fundamental and its overtones, and—more metaphorically—the resonance in the case of a warm and sonorous arrangement of simple melodies and harmonies. The idea of sweet-spots refers also to transient resonances as they occur, for example, in a glissando that momentarily duplicates the pitch of a sustained sound. The use of pedal tones is closely linked to the work’s exploration of sweet-spots. The stable pedals, employed throughout the piece, provide the harmonic framework for other sounds to create moments of resonance. I believe that these sweet-spots can appeal to an appreciation of sound in its own right, but also trigger emotional responses because of the warmth and reinforcing qualities associated with them. Version 2 of Sweet-Spots was written for the trio altrove 1.3 and first performed at the Monash Centre in Prato (Italy) in 2007. The original and longer version of Sweet-Spots is a concerto for contrabass clarinet and chamber ensemble that was commissioned by the Alaskan new music organisation CrossSound. It was first performed in Juneau in 2006 by the CrossSound Sinfonietta with Kevin Schempf as soloist. (Thomas Reiner) 
Andrea Nicoli - Gli echi chiamano (1995)for guitar and electronics Publisher: ARS PUBLICA Gli Echi Chiamano is a composition that grew out of the desire to express my unease about the war in Yugoslavia, which, in many ways, was too immediate to experience it as being far away. But has this not already happened before? What about the 'camps' in Germany and Poland? (And what about now ...) Have the many lives lost not taught us anything? Can I (and maybe you), in the spacial extension of time, hear the remaining vibrations caused by screaming children? And what about the tears past (and those still to come), and the rage of powerlessness and fear? The tape part integrates fragments of written and narrated texts about the the Yugoslav war. The performer has to negotiate the tension associated with being placed into continued randomness. The openness of the score gives rise to different and contrasting emotions. (Andrea Nicoli) René Mense - Duo (2004/2005) for alto flute and guitar The Duo for alto flute and guitar was commissioned by Gisbert Watty and is dedicated with special thanks to him and Luciano Tristaino. The piece is situated in a group of chamber works in which I have explored the aesthetics of classical sonata form. Rather than focusing on formal concerns such as the sonata form itself or its combination with rondo and variation forms, I have conceived the music in terms of a dramatic and dialectic development that encompasses all musical parameters. The basic gesture of the Duo corresponds to an intimate conversation, that is, the two instruments respond as partners to each other and sublimate their relationship into something that means more than their togetherness. (René Mense) Thomas Reiner - fan-fair (2000/2001), version for classical guitar and cd fan-fair for electric guitar and CD was commissioned in 2000 by the Australian guitarist Ken Murray. The piece is a hybrid that combines electronic dance music with an atonal guitar part. While the work was originally written for electric guitar, Gisbert Watty's version is for classical guitar. Some of the details of the instrumental part, including the particular arrangement of melodic motifs, are left to the performer. The work is characterized by an obvious stylistic tension between popular pulse-driven music and the dissonant and more abstract nature of the guitar's melodic sequences. Another feature of this work is the somewhat oblique relationship between the metronomically precise electronic part and the naturally more fluid live performance of the guitarist. (Thomas Reiner) Gisbert Watty was born in Velbert (Germany). He studied guitar with Maritta Kersting at the Robert Schumann Musikhochschule in Düsseldorf (Germany) and with Flavio Cucchi at the Scuola di Musica di Fiesole in Florence (Italy). Following the completion of his diploma and after participating in Masterclasses with Eliot Fisk, Manuel Barrueco and Oscar Ghiglia, he appeared in numerous concerts throughout Europe and in Australia. His performance activities began in 1990 with a special focus on chamber music and contemporary music. His solo repertoire ranges from J.S.Bach to the present day, including some of the most important concerts for guitar and orchestra (Giuliani, Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Rodrigo, Brouwer). He performs regularly with flautist Luciano Tristaino and his brother the pianist Siegmund Watty, and he is a member of trio altrove 1.3, a chamber group dedicated to music for flute, clarinet and guitar. He has participated in a large number of CD recordings as a soloist, with flautist Luciano Tristaino, the trio altrove 1.3, the Guitar Symphonietta of Florence, the chamber music group of the Italian Youth Orchestra (Orchestra Giovanile Italiana) and the Tuchfühlungsensemble. He has also appeared in radio and television broadcasts for WDR (Germany), RAI (Italy), NRK (Norway), ABC and SBS (Australia). He held masterclasses and workshops in several Conservatories in Italy and Australia and is the guitar  teacher in the Music Academies in Campi Bisenzio and Prato. He performed for many years with a guitar made by Gerold Karl Hannabach and presently plays on a ‘Royal’, an instrument made by Paulino Bernabé (Madrid, 2010). Gisbert Watty is collaborating with numerous composers from all over the world and has commisioned a large number of new works for and with guitar. Luciano Tristaino studied flute with Mario Ancillotti and Rien de Reede. He was a member of the Italian Youth Orchestra and finalist in the 1994 auditions for the Berlin Philarmonic Orchestra at the Karajan Academy. Apart from a busy concert schedule in Italy, Tristaino has also made regular appearances in Switzerland, Germany, Holland, Romania, Hungary, Norway, Australia and the United States, both as a soloist and as a chamber performer. He has recorded and broadcast for RAI, ABC, Bayerischer Rundfunk, RTSO, Koch-Schwan, Arts, Ars Publica and Move Records. Tristaino plays with the Ensemble Nuovo Contrappunto, teaches at the Scuola di Musica di Fiesole and is professor of flute at the Franci Conservatory in Siena, Italy. Marcello Bonacchelli studied clarinet with Michele Del Vicario and Antony Pay. He has won prizes in both national and international competitions and played in many Italian orchestras. Since 1995 he is the clarinettist of the Ensemble Nuovo Contrappunto. Together with the ensemble he has performed all over Italy and in many European countries, recorded several CDs and presented first performances of works by Morricone, Vacchi, Piacentini und Baratelli. He teaches clarinet at the Istituto Musicale “P.Mascagni” in Livorno and in Lucca. Siegmund Watty studied Piano with Hubert Juhre and Till Engel at the Folkwang Musikhochschule in Essen and at the Robert Schumann Institut in Düsseldorf with David Levine. He also attended masterclasses with Aribert Reimann amongst others. Regular performances and concert activities as well as a particular interest in chamber music and contemporary classical music led to engagements across Europe. He has performed at numerous festivals, and recorded for radio and television, including Deutsche Welle, WDR, ABC, RAI and Norwegian Radio NRK. He has also been the artistic director at Tuchfühlung 2 and initiated the Jornadas Hispano-Noruegas in Alfaz del Pi, Spain. trio altrove 1.3 developed from the coming together of three musicians with a special interest in classical and contemporary chamber music. The trio’s first concert took place in 2001 and consisted of a program of first performances of new compositions for this unusual instrumentation. This was followed by a substantial workshop and rehearsal phase that covered some of the most important works of the classical and modern repertoire.  The three musicians primarily aim for perfect harmony between sound colour and dynamics, maintaining a precise balance among the three instruments. The trio constantly broadens its repertoire through arrangements of traditional compositions and is constantly engaged in the commissioning of new works from around the world, approaching composers with an interest in the trio’s particular instrumentation and with a willingness to explore new possibilities for chamber music. The results of this work has been presented to audiences in Europe and Australia. Trio altrove 1.3 has recorded radio programms for ABC Classic FM (Australia), Radio New Zealand, Rai Radio 3 and Rai Filodiffusione. In 2007, Move Records (Australia) released the CD Kappa dedicated to new Australian chamber works and the trio has partecipated on the CD Songs e Ricercari with compositions by Fabrizio De Rossi Re (Edizioni Rai Trade).