Aranjuez

Description

The Concierto de Volos — Leo Brouwer’s sixth guitar concerto — was composed in 1996 at the request of Costas Cotsiolis. It was therefore dedicated to this talented Greek guitarist. The concerto was premiered in Volos during the summer of 1997.

« As it is the case for most of the guitar concertos that preceded it, the Concierto de Volos reflects more the personality of the person to whom it is dedicated than the countryside or local culture to which it seems to refer — the Concierto elegíaco is a portrait of Julian Bream, like the Concierto de Torontowas written in the image of John Williams. The different parts of the Concierto de Volos, lento-allegro-lento-allegro, are inspired by the baroque form of the sonata da chiesafor the structure, but the melancholy climate and tender of the slow movements conform to the idea I have of Costas Cotsiolis. One finds reminders and citations of the atmospheres and themes of the Black Sea and the Mediterranean Sea in the thematic material. I used a theme in the finale that both the Greeks and the Bulgarians respectively claim to have fathered. As for the slow motifs, they are original yet still in the Byzantine spirit ».

Joaquin Rodrigo was thinking of his wife, the Turkish pianist Victoria Kamhi, when he wrote the Concierto de Aranjuez in 1939, which has subsequently become the most played guitar concerto of our time. The concerto’s adagio was composed while Victoria was gravely ill, and the chords at the beginning of this movement evoke the beating of her heart.

“The day before the recording at the end of July 1997”, says Scott Tennant, “I found myself in Madrid where I was to meet Cecília Rodrigo, the daughter of Joaquín and Victoria. That morning, she told me our meeting wasn’t going to happen – her mother had just passed away. This event definitely affected my interpretation of the concerto, particularly of its slow movement. I felt a lot of emotion playing the beats of a heart that had just been silenced.”

Everyone has heard the music from the film The Bridge on the River Kwai. But did you know that it was Malcolm Arnold who composed this world-reknowned score for which he won an Oscar ? Born in Nothampton, England, in 1921, he was pupil of Gordon Jacob for composition and of Ernest Hall for trumpet. He subsequently was first trumpet in the London Philharmonic Orchestra. Among his numerous and diversified works are two compositions for guitar and orchestra: the Serenade opus 50, written in 1955, — a kind of short musical enternainment — and the Guitar Concerto opus 67, written in 1959. In both of the works, written for Julian Bream, Arnold appears as a fine melodist rather than a developer of themes.

The Orquesta de Córdoba was created in 1992 by the regional Counsel of Andalusia and the municipality of Córdoba. Artistic direction of the orchestra was entrusted to the composer and conductor Leo Brouwer. Among the motives for his designation also as the conductor of this orchestra, theOrquesta de Cordoba was pleased to remind and underline the master’s vast experience, his international prestige and especially his enthusiasm with which he assumed under all aspects the enormous mission involved in the creation of a new orchestra.