Joaquin Rodrigo has extensively contribued to enlarging the guitar repertoire in quantity and in quality. HisConcierto de Aranjuez<\/u>\u00a0is the world\u2019s best known guitar concerto. He also composed four other works for guitar and orchestra, the\u00a0Fantasia para un gentilhombre<\/u>\u00a0(1954), the\u00a0Concierto Andaluz<\/u>\u00a0(1967), theConcierto Madrigal<\/u>\u00a0(1968) and the\u00a0Concierto para una fiesta<\/u>\u00a0(1981).
\nThe Concierto Madrigal was composed for the Presti-Lagoya duo but they never had a chance of playing it, owing to lda Presti\u2019s 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<\/u>,\u00a0caccia<\/u>) or stemming from the Spanish folklore (girardilla<\/u>,\u00a0fandango<\/u>,\u00a0zapateado<\/u>). According to the composer\u2019s own words, variation is the sustaining element of the whole piece. The Concierto Madrigal is based on Jacques Arcadelt\u2019s madrigal \u201cO felici occhi miei\u201d 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\u2019s Orfeo. The next nine movements contrast in tempo and rhythm; the\u00a0caccia<\/u>\u00a0which ends the concerto, briefly evokes Manuel de Falla\u2019s\u00a0Danza del molinero<\/u>\u00a0and the melody of the slow movement of the\u00a0Concierto de Aranjuez<\/u>. It ends by recalling the madrigal that has woven the whole piece together.<\/p>\n
If it were not for Andr\u00e9s 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 \u00e0 travers les si\u00e8cles<\/u>\u00a0(1932), his very first contribution to the guitar repertoire; his\u00a0Sonata opus 77<\/u>, the\u00a0Capriccio diabolico<\/u>\u00a0and his famous\u00a0Tarantelle opus 87<\/u>\u00a0all testify to his perfected command of guitar composition. His\u00a0Concerto for guitar opus 99<\/u>\u00a0in D major, referred to as \u201cthe first 20th century guitar concerto\u201d, was written in 1939, shortly before Rodrigo\u2019s\u00a0Concierto de Aranjuez<\/u>\u00a0and Ponce\u2019s\u00a0Concierto del Sur<\/u>. 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\u00a0guitar concerto opus 160<\/u>. 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 \u2013 sarabande and variations \u2013 is a particularly long one. A massive une of percussion instruments, clear themes and orchestration bring about luminescent overtones.
\nCastelnuovo Tedesco\u2019s 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\u00a0Sonatina canonica opus 196<\/u>, the\u00a0Guitares bien temp\u00e9r\u00e9es opus 199<\/u>, and theConcerto for two guitars opus 201<\/u>\u00a0(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 \u201cpomposo\u201d 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 \u201cburlesco\u201d theme: the second motif appears in a \u201cscherzando\u201d way at the end of the cadence announcing the orchestra concluding the movement. The second movement is a \u00ab\u00a0lied<\/u>\u00a0\u00bb. The guitars only play the main \u201csimple et tranquille\u201d motif, then the second \u201cpi\u00f9 mosso ed energico\u201d one. The whole andante is constructed around these motifs. In the last devilish \u201crondo mexicano\u201d movement, the trumpet \u201cimpertinente\u201d 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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Joaquin Rodrigo has extensively contribued to enlarging the guitar repertoire in quantity and in quality. HisConcierto de Aranjuez\u00a0is the world\u2019s best known guitar concerto. He also composed four other works for guitar and orchestra, the\u00a0Fantasia para un gentilhombre\u00a0(1954), the\u00a0Concierto Andaluz\u00a0(1967), theConcierto Madrigal\u00a0(1968) and the\u00a0Concierto para una fiesta\u00a0(1981). The Concierto Madrigal was composed for the Presti-Lagoya […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":820,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"artiste":[89],"product_brand":[],"product_cat":[48],"product_tag":[61],"class_list":{"0":"post-829","1":"product","2":"type-product","3":"status-publish","4":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"artiste-duo-assad-en","7":"product_cat-cds","8":"product_tag-classical","10":"first","11":"instock","12":"featured","13":"taxable","14":"shipping-taxable","15":"purchasable","16":"product-type-simple"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gharecords.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product\/829","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gharecords.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gharecords.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/product"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gharecords.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=829"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gharecords.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/820"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gharecords.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=829"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artiste","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gharecords.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artiste?post=829"},{"taxonomy":"product_brand","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gharecords.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_brand?post=829"},{"taxonomy":"product_cat","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gharecords.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_cat?post=829"},{"taxonomy":"product_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gharecords.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_tag?post=829"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}