Acclaimed concert artist and laureate of numerous awards, Mabel Millán brings her stunning technique and remarkable musical expressiveness to this programme of some of the most spectacular and best-loved repertoire ever composed for the guitar. From the Andalusian rhythms and atmosphere of Turina and Malats, the Romantic expressiveness and national colors of Ponce and Mertz, to the lyrical beauty and dramatic virtuosity of Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s Capriccio diabolico, every aspect of the guitar’s refined delicacy and explosive dynamism is explored here to the full.

The guitar is ideal for lyrical romanticism, and always has been in its long history. But its clarity and fluency of line also provide scope for contrapuntal complexity characterized in the baroque era by the master works of J.S. Bach. The intimate voice of the guitar lends itself to every epoch and within this selection we move from the eighteenth century to the Napoleonic period, and then to Francisco Tárrega, the high priest of guitar expressiveness, and, in the twentieth century, to the profoundly Italian inspiration of Castelnuovo-Tedesco. Also represented here are the elegant musical statements of a modern virtuoso, José María Gallardo del Rey, a contemporary guitarist/ composer. The richness of textures to be found throughout is truly remarkable, proving once again that a guitar is appropriate for all seasons and for so many varied moods and emotions.

Widely acclaimed for the subtle artistry of his playing, Pablo Garibay has won numerous international competitions including the JoAnn Falletta (USA), Julián Arcas (Spain), Manuel M. Ponce (Mexico), René Bartoli (France) and Gevelsberg (Germany). Scarlatti’s ‘soul-searching’ Sonata in D minor, K.213 reveals even more of its expressive poignancy when arranged for guitar, and other sublime works in this recital are closely associated with the great Andrés Segovia, who described Tarréga’s Capricho árabe as ‘especially suited to reach the chords of a feminine heart’.

This CD has been a long time coming, and dates back to the first time Paco Peña and Eliot Fisk ever met, when they performed separately at a now-defunct guitar festival in Germany, in September 1983. The disc does not pretend to be either pure flamenco or pure classical. Necessarily, the classical selections are colored by Paco’s flamenco sensibility just as the flamenco selections are colored by Eliot’s formation in the classical world. But that is exactly what is interesting! Paco finds things in classical music that would never occur to a classical player, and something analogous can be said of Eliot’s attempts to enter the mysterious temple of flamenco.

This first of four volumes represents award-winning guitarist Adam Levin’s major collaboration with the new century’s ‘Spanish Masters’. Bridges to the past include medieval sources in the Secuencia Sefardita and Baroque in the unconventional variations of Handeliana. These stand alongside pastoral scenes in Viento de Primavera and a celebration of Albéniz from Leonardo Balada. From contemplative moods to spectacular virtuosity, this is a musical voyage both unexpected and unforgettable. Adam Levin has been acclaimed for his ‘enviable technique’ and a ‘high musicianship which shines like a beacon through his performances’. (Classical Guitar magazine)

Toru Takemitsu is widely regarded as the greatest Japanese composer of the 20th century. After the appearance of Folios in 1974 he was acknowledged as a formidable master of writing for the guitar, bringing to the instrument a sensibility and imaginative flair which have seldom been equalled. In the Woods was his final composition. Shin-ichi Fukada and Leo Brouwer were both close friends of Takemitsu, and this programme includes Brouwer’s two heartfelt homages in his memory.

Grammy Award winner Jason Vieaux joins forces with the esteemed Escher Quartet to produce a recording with some new and old works with dance themes in common. These three works may share elements of dance-inspired music, and contain actual allusions to specific dances in the titles (or expressive markings) of certain movements, but that is where the similarities end. These guitar quintets, all from very different periods, couldn’t be any more different from each other in style, timbre, texture and dynamics. They show the musical range and flexibility of the guitar within a more traditional chamber music group setting.

A lot has been written but little has been told about the Neapolitan Ferdinando Carulli, considered the founder of nineteenth-century technique and didactical teaching of the guitar; his figure as composer (he left us an endless number of compositions), represents an essential reference for the study of the guitar. This album, performed by Sandro Volta and Mauro Bonelli, is focused on one of the least considered aspects, yet very important for the formation of a musician: the music for two guitars in its fundamental meaning: on one hand exquisitely concertistic pieces, on the other hand dedicated to pure didactics - real “Lessons” - for which the compositions for two performers are particularly important. The interpretation of these works by Ferdinando Carulli was developed on the basis of the use of two period guitars with catgut strings from the collection of Lorenzo Frignani, in Modena, and on a “historically informed” performance practice. The result is aesthetically quite different from that obtained with modern instruments: its distinctive qualities are a more audible “noise” when the fingers pluck the strings or run over them, a more marked difference in the timbres of the various ranges, and also a particular lightness of sound.