Guitarist Tariq Harb plays the famous "Adagio in G minor" originally for violin, strings, and organ continuo, arranged by Harb in E minor for solo guitar.

This is a neo-Baroque composition popularly attributed to the 18th-century Venetian composer Tomaso Albinoni, but actually composed by 20th-century musicologist and Albinoni biographer Remo Giazotto, purportedly based on the discovery of a manuscript fragment by Albinoni. There is a continuing scholarly debate about whether the alleged fragment was real, or a musical hoax perpetrated by Giazotto, but there is no doubt about Giazotto's authorship of the remainder of the work.

The composition is often referred to as "Albinoni's Adagio" or "Adagio in G minor by Albinoni, arranged by Giazotto", but the attribution is incorrect. The ascription to Albinoni rests upon Giazotto's purported discovery of a tiny manuscript fragment (consisting of a few opening measures of the melody line and basso continuo portion) from a slow second movement of an otherwise unknown Albinoni trio sonata.

According to Giazotto, he obtained the document shortly after the end of World War II from the Saxon State Library in Dresden which had preserved most of its collection. Giazotto concluded that the manuscript fragment was a portion of a church sonata (sonata da chiesa, one of two standard forms of the trio sonata) in G minor composed by Albinoni, possibly as part of his Op. 4 set, around 1708.

Musicologist Muska Mangano, Giazotto's last assistant, claimed to have discovered a modern but independent manuscript transcription of the figured bass portion and six fragmentary bars of the first violin, "bearing in the top right-hand corner a stamp stating unequivocally the Dresden provenance of the original from which it was taken". The scholarly consensus is that the Adagio in G minor is Giazotto's composition, whatever source may have inspired him.

Regardless of who composed the theme, I would like to dedicated it to Liona Boyd, the first lady of the guitar, because it was due to her performance of this piece with orchestra that I got introduced to this timeless work of fine art. Thank you, Liona, for the inspiration!

My arrangement can be found here: [ Ссылка ]

I hope you enjoy this video! :)

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