Johann Kaspar Mertz (1806-56), born in Pressburg (now Bratislava), was one of the leading guitar virtuosos of the mid-nineteenth century and a prolific composer whose works are archetypical of the repertory of the instrument in his times. His successful career in Europe was interrupted by a heart complaint, made worse by his wife's over-enthusiastic administration of strychnine; he rallied and briefly resumed, but died just too soon to hear that his Concertino had won first prize in a competition in Brussels. His output contains many miniatures and genre pieces, of which a large number are contained in his 15-volume Bardenklange (''Bardic sounds''), whose title reflects the contemporary revival of interest in minstrelsy.
Gone is the world of Sor, Giuliani and the other famous guitarists with whose lives Mertz's overlapped: in language, style and spirit Mertz's Albumblatter have echoes of Schubert, Schumann and Mendelssohn, the last in Mertz's own imaginary vision of Fingals-Hohle and a Gondoliera, both included in this programme. If they dwell on a lower level than that of their pianistic counterparts they remain unmatched by any other guitar composer of the times. They call for a player of high technique and sensitivity to style, and Richard Savino is such a one. His recordings of the guitar quintets of Boccherini are highly regarded, and in this, his first solo recording (using a gentle-toned period instrument) to reach these shores, he reveals himself as a force to be reckoned with. The annotation is somewhat brief, but fuller information on the individual pieces may be gleaned from Simon Wynberg's scholarly Chanterelle edition.'