Rafael Aguirre is acknowledged as one of today’s most celebrated virtuoso guitarists, having won first prize at 13 of the world’s most prestigious international competitions: a record-breaking achievement for a Spanish musician. Following on from his previous, acclaimed recording (8.572064), this full-blooded recital is of music by Spanish composers or those influenced by Iberia, from the pure flamenco of Paco de Lucía’s Guajiras to Debussy’s impressionistic Soirée dans Grenade, and from Albéniz’s Triana, named after the gypsy quarter in Seville, to the virtuoso fireworks of Tárrega’s Gran Jota.

During the Fifties Andres Segovia strengthened his fame as the best classical guitarist in the world with a series of wonderful recordings containing the most significant parts of his repertoire. Segovia’s 19th century music repertoire was focused almost exclusively on the Spanish composers, composers the he liked best. He did not often consider Italian composers. Among the Spanish composers Fernando Sor (Barcellona, 1778 – Paris, 1839) had been his favorite; he was a talented composer and performer who wrote Studies for Guitar which featured a great melodic originality that is even now still used in the education of classical guitarists. This album collects, for the first time, all the recordings that Segovia made of Sor works during the 1950s, which were the best moments of his musical career .

This new Naxos release provides a really fine cross-section of twentieth century Argentinean tango music...The Argentinean soloist Victor Villandangos is an inspired choice for these warm and colorful tango works from his fellow-countrymen and his marvelous playing is most spacious, descriptive and expressive. He makes light work of the virtuoso demands of even the most technically challenging works whilst still maintaining an exceptionally high degree of panache and inspirational spontaneity. Villandangos's tone is exceptionally attractive and is assisted by the real fine sound quality...Exceedingly appealing music exceptionally well played. Naxos has a sure-fire winner here. -- Michael Cookson, musicweb.uk.net

about the release In a short space of time Augustin Hadelich has become one of the most respected and admired violinists of his generation. Two critically acclaimed and Billboard Classical Chart-topping releases for AVIE, a string of major debuts with the likes of the New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco, St. Louis and National Symphony Orchestras, multiple awards including an Avery Fisher Career Grant and Lincoln Center's Martin E. Segal Award, have resulted in major media coverage in The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, and Philadelphia Inquirer, among many others, and an ever-widening and adoring fan base. On Histoire du Tango, Augustin conjures a dark and sultry night of fiery, hot-blooded dancing. Partnered by award-winning Spanish guitarist Pablo Sáinz Villegas, Augustin traces the history of Argentina's national dance in Piazzola's title track, stirs up folk, gypsy and flamenco dances which inspired De Falla's Six Popular Spanish Songs, and tosses off a fusillade of pyrotechnics in works by the pinnacles of 19th-century violin performance, Paganini and Sarasate. critical acclaim for Augustin Hadelich "If a layer of surface noise were added to Augustin Hadelich's recent solo-violin recording on the Avie label, you might think you were hearing a virtuoso out of the Golden Age." - The New Yorker "behind Hadelich's talent was a molten intensity, a determination to explore the music's passionate, earthy sides with gritty articulation and tender lyricism." - Cleveland Plain Dealer "impressive -- intonation dead-on, with a luscious tone and an Old World grace that you don't hear very much from young violinists anymore." - Los Angeles Times "he easily confirmed his place on the shortlist of today's top violin virtuosos" - The Denver Post, on Augustin's New York Philharmonic debut at the Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival

David Juritz writes: “The dilemma faced by any arranger of Bach is to stay true to the character of his music while knowing he would have been far bolder and more imaginative. For this version, I have attempted to remain within a sound-world that he would have found familiar. I did, however, have two factors on my side: Bach’s sublime and rigorous counterpoint and, in Craig Ogden, a virtuoso guitarist whose technical accomplishment is matched only by his Aussie ability to remain unruffled in the face of any challenge.”

Meredith Monk’s MEMORY GAME, as its title implies, is both a look back at a pivotal point in her storied career, and a richly layered portrait of how vocal music, under the guidance of an indefatigable master, can play with our expectations in poignant and compelling ways. Teaming up here with her renowned Vocal Ensemble (featuring Theo Bleckmann, Katie Geissinger and Allison Sniffin) and backed by the Bang on a Can All-Stars, Monk explores all-new arrangements of never-before-recorded selections from her award-winning sci-fi opera The Games, as well as new versions of several pieces originally released on Do You Be (1987) and Impermanence (2008). What emerges from MEMORY GAME is a suite of songs that flows with a remarkable narrative cohesion, stemming in large part from the composer’s willingness to revisit the past with an insatiably curious eye.

In 2020, Giuseppe Chiaramonte starred in a SKY TV documentary about the solo-guitar fantasias of the 19th-century Hungarian composer Johann Kaspar Mertz. These pieces formed the subject of his debut in Brilliant Classics (95722), for an album which won acclaim in the specialist-guitar press for the warmth of Chiaramonte’s sound, the palette of his tonal colors and his adventurousness in reviving the music of a composer deservedly once known as the ‘Liszt of the guitar’. Mertz’s 16th-century equivalent was undoubtedly Luys Milán (1500-1560), who referred to himself without false modesty as ‘El Maestro’ and a second Orpheus. Published under his name in 1536, El maestro is the first printed collection of music for the vihuela; the earliest Spanish collection of solo instrumental music and accompanied songs; and the first printed example of guitar tablature in Spain. The six pavans in Milán’s collection resemble the dances of the same name from further north in Europe, though less afflicted by melancholy. They illuminate in turn the more intricate polyphony of the fantasias and tientos composed by a shorter-lived contemporary, Luys de Narváez, who died in 1550, barely into his mid-20s. Thus deprived of further experience, Narváez was still writing in a more restrained idiom than Milán, though no less affecting in its way. It was largely thanks to these two composers that the vihuela attained such popularity in 16th-century Spain, and modern audiences may appreciate the poetry of their music once more thanks to the inspired advocacy of Giuseppe Chiaramonte, who introduces the life and work of both composers in a detailed booklet essay accompanying the album.

REVIEW

This CD concentrates...on music for the vihuela and the good news is that, while the music is played on the modern guitar (common, though not universal, practice today), it is played with real insight and sympathy. The programme is made up of pieces by two major composers for (and players of) the vihuela. Indeed, the contents are taken from the first two books of music for the vihuela to be printed in Spain: Milán’s Libro de música de vilhuela de mano intitulado El Maestro, printed in Valencia in 1536 and Narváez’s Los seys libros de Délphin de música de cifras para tañer vihuela, published in Valladolid in 1538.

Part of the appeal of this new CD is that we are able to hear a substantial number of pieces by both composers (18 by Milán and 9 by Narváez), enough to get a fuller idea of each composer and, perhaps to make a preliminary comparison of the two.

[Chiaramonte] is clearly a guitarist with the ability to produce fine (in some ways revelatory) performances of music well beyond the usual guitar repertoire, with intelligence, perception and skill – which is not to say that he cannot play the instrument’s ‘mainstream’ repertoire to a very high standard too. I look forward to hearing more of his work.

--MusicWeb International (Glyn Pursglove)

Born in 1860, Spanish composer Isaac Albéniz was mainly a pianist and wrote primarily for the piano. More than any other musician, he succeeded in incorporating the Spanish guitar idiom and folklore into his style. Thus it is no wonder that many of Albéniz’s piano works have also been performed on the guitar. But things are different when we come to Albéniz’s Iberia, a suite of piano pieces so complex that few solo guitarists have ever attempted to transcribe and perform them. My selection stems from Albéniz’s most well-known cycles: Iberia, Suite Española and España.

Cremona 1679 – Antonio Stradivari was in his thirties and, despite his young age, was undoubtedly a renowned maker among the excellent Cremonese craftsmen. He lived with his first wife Francesca Ferraboschi in strada Magistra, in the parish of Sant’Agata. The following year he took an important step as confirmation of his success and wealth: he bought a house with workshop opposite the church of San Domenico, in the quarter that was the heart of the creative activity of the city’s violin makers. Made in the same year, the Hellier violin and the Sabionari guitar reveal Stradivari’s great technical skills and artistic maturity. The Hellier, a violin of large size and vigorous style, was named after its first, lucky owner, a rich gentleman of British origin who presumedly bought the violin directly from Stradivari. The decoration of the ribs and scroll, made with the technique of inlay filled with mastic of wood paste and glue, is characterized by a phytomorphic design of flowers and buds with animals. The elegant ornamentation on the top and back plates consists of a double inlayed purfling enclosing small ivory or bone lozenges and roundels fixed with mastic of wood and glue.

The Sabionari is one of the five Baroque guitars made by Antonio Stradivari that have survived to date. It was made in 1679 based on the same mould used in 1681 for the Giustiniani guitar and in 1688 for the Hill guitar. According to some sources, the instrument was sold by Stradivari’s descendants to Giovanni Sabionari from Ferrara at the end of the eighteenth century. In the early nineteenth century, it was modified to become a six-string guitar, as it happened to many Baroque guitars, by the maker Giuseppe Marconcini. In 2011, the guitar was restored to its original Baroque configuration with five double strings after the replacement of the parts made by Marconcini.