Two Concertos for Two Guitars

Description

Joaquin Rodrigo has extensively contribued to enlarging the guitar repertoire in quantity and in quality. HisConcierto de Aranjuez is the world’s best known guitar concerto. He also composed four other works for guitar and orchestra, the Fantasia para un gentilhombre (1954), the Concierto Andaluz (1967), theConcierto Madrigal (1968) and the Concierto para una fiesta (1981).
The Concierto Madrigal was composed for the Presti-Lagoya duo but they never had a chance of playing it, owing to lda Presti’s death. Pepe and Angel Romero gave the world premiere of this concerto in 1970 in Los Angeles. In it, Joaquin Rodrigo totally drifts away from the classical three movement structure. It is a suite of airs and dances either in a 16th century erudite style (madrigal, caccia) or stemming from the Spanish folklore (girardilla, fandango, zapateado). According to the composer’s own words, variation is the sustaining element of the whole piece. The Concierto Madrigal is based on Jacques Arcadelt’s madrigal “O felici occhi miei” composed in 1539. The flute plays the main melody in the second movement, this melody reappears under different guises, in keeping with the specific style of each movement. It starts with a martial and joyful fanfare constructed around two lively motives reminiscent of the toccata in Monteverdi’s Orfeo. The next nine movements contrast in tempo and rhythm; the caccia which ends the concerto, briefly evokes Manuel de Falla’s Danza del molinero and the melody of the slow movement of the Concierto de Aranjuez. It ends by recalling the madrigal that has woven the whole piece together.

If it were not for Andrés Segovia friendly insistence, nothing would have indicated that Mario Castelnuovo Tedesco was prepared to and had any intentions of writing for the guitar, quite a tricky task for composers who do not actually play it. Shortly after his encounter with Segovia, Castelnuovo Tedesco produced hisVariations à travers les siècles (1932), his very first contribution to the guitar repertoire; his Sonata opus 77, the Capriccio diabolico and his famous Tarantelle opus 87 all testify to his perfected command of guitar composition. His Concerto for guitar opus 99 in D major, referred to as “the first 20th century guitar concerto”, was written in 1939, shortly before Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez and Ponce’s Concierto del Sur. The composer had already approached concerto writing on several occasions, allowing for a keen sense of melody and orchestration, a firm style, a careful balancing out between the guitar parts and these of a rather large orchestra. In 1953, he wrote his second guitar concerto opus 160. It differs from the preceding one: the orchestra is slightly vaster and the composer no longer abides by the traditional concerto structure. The guitar solo presents a motif that is taken up by the other instruments all trough the first movement. The second movement – sarabande and variations – is a particularly long one. A massive une of percussion instruments, clear themes and orchestration bring about luminescent overtones.
Castelnuovo Tedesco’s meeting with Presti and Lagoya accounts for his interest in guitar duets, in the early sixties. Ever more than in his main works for guitar solo, his talent for duo guitar composing shows, especially in his mastery of interchange and imitation techniques between both players. Castelnuovo Tedesco went on to write the Sonatina canonica opus 196, the Guitares bien tempérées opus 199, and theConcerto for two guitars opus 201 (1962). The orchestra is similar to that of the opus 160 concerto, except for a wider use of percussion. In the first movement, the orchestra plays the “pomposo” theme and is immediately followed by a trumpet solo part; the guitars take up the solo and then revert to the initial theme in E major. Flutes and clarinets, sustained by strings pizzicati set forth the second “burlesco” theme: the second motif appears in a “scherzando” way at the end of the cadence announcing the orchestra concluding the movement. The second movement is a « lied ». The guitars only play the main “simple et tranquille” motif, then the second “più mosso ed energico” one. The whole andante is constructed around these motifs. In the last devilish “rondo mexicano” movement, the trumpet “impertinente” plays the main theme that will reappear in the cadence, in a more melancholy way. The percussion instruments convey a typical rhythmic touch to this incredibly lively finale.