Lo que vendrá

Description

Originally, the tonadilla was a plainsong with guitar accompaniment used to mark an interlude in Spanish theatrical performances. It subsequently evolved into a short show piece. Joaquin Rodrigo’s Tonadilla para dos guitarras, written in 1964, holds to the general form of a typical Spanish genre piece making use of the guitar. The opening allegro, concise and brilliant, establishes between the two guitars brisk dialogue punctuated by powerful rasgueados.
The second movement, minueto pomposo, respects the traditional symmetry of the genre. The lyrical, occasionally mischievous accents of the minuet, contrast with the central trio showing off to excellent advantage the expressive qualities of the guitars in a song of exaltation underscored by bold rasgueados.
An allegro vivace of extraordinary flight ends this tonadilla; the dazzling dynamics of the first section are followed by a slow part blending the warm sonorities of the guitars before concluding in a frenzied return to the principal motif.

A native Brazilian, pianist and violist, Radamés Gnattali taught himself composition and, like Villa Lobos in his early days, he assiduously cultivated popular musicians, so numerous in Brazil. Their influence marks the greater part of his music produced between 1931 and 1940.
After having exploited popular folk sources in a series of Brasilianas, the composer deliberately pointed his music towards a neo-romantic, neo-classical style notably in evidence in his Concêrto Romântico and his Sinfonia Popular.
Gnattali is the author of several works of chamber music including guitar, he also composed ten studies for guitar and six concertos for guitar of which three are written for two guitars (one of them is dedicated to the Assad Brothers).
Gnattali’s Corta jaca and Valsa are taken from his Suite Retratos, composed in 1957, whose four movements are dedicated respectively to Pixinguinha (1898-1972), Ernesto Nazareth (1863-1934), Anacleto de Medeiros (1866-1907) and Chiquinha Gonzaga (1847-1935), author of a famous Corta jaca composed in 1897.
These two pieces, as well as the schottish, valsa and toccata-chôro which comprise the Brasiliana n°8 written in 1956, reflect the nationalistic element in Gnattali’s work and pay tribute to the rich heritage of popular Brazilian folk music. The composer’s tastes range over a repertoire much in vogue at the turn of the century, dances like polka, tango, waltz, schottish, mazurka — without forgetting the typical chôro —, pieces both tender and fiery, breathing the vibrant Brazilian rhythms.

Alberto Ginastera taught Piazzolla fugue and composition. Hermann Scherchen taught him conducting. Piazzolla met Nadia Boulanger in 1954 and, thanks to her perceptiveness, he who contemplated classical composition, became soon the creator of a new, revolutionary genre, the nuevo tango. However, the guitar brought Astor Piazzolla back to classical music. In 1980, he composed five tangos for Roberto Aussel and, a few years later, he dedicated his astonishing Tango Suite to the Assad Brothers.
Nowadays, Piazzolla’s music has been widely adapted for classical ensembles and particulary appealing to guitarists who have been transcribing numerous tangos for their own instrument. Sérgio Assad’s high quality tribute to Piazzolla consists in transcriptions of Las cuatro estaciones porteñas* for solo guitar, Escualo**, Fuga y misterio**, Ausencias, Invierno porteño and Verano porteño for two guitars and violin, Decarissimo and Fracanapa for two guitars, bandoneon and violin, the Suite Troileana, Lo que vendrá and Escolaso for two guitars.

* Recorded by Eduardo Isaac on GHA 126.038
** Available on GHA 126.027