Guitar Collection - Duarte: Guitar Music / Antigoni Goni
Naxos
CD
$19.99Jul 01, 2001
John Duarte always composed for the most purist reason there is--the sheer love of it. Beginning in his teens as an amateur jazz guitarist, he soon began writing more classically inspired works primarily based on improvisation. Just before his 50th birthday, Duarte's "increasingly rewarding hobby" (as he puts it in the notes) made him decide to retire professionally as a scientist and devote himself to composing. Since then, Duarte has established quite a reputation in guitar circles, recieving commissions from such luminaries as Andrés Segovia and John Williams. Now an octogenarian, Duarte seems never to have lost sight of his original motive: making the appeal of his music simple. He writes completely unpretentious, accessible tunes arising from his own pleasure and offered for the pleasure of others.
While most of the selections here were composed with other guitarists in mind, Antigoni Goni's performances are thoroughly enjoyable and technically faultless. The opening Pastorale movement of the first selection, Suite Piemontese, features a lively dance riddled with counterpoint in the tradition of Tarrega (La Cartagenera instantly comes to mind). Goni's expert rendering of Duarte's triptych suite Birds is equally stunning with its sudden chromatic shifts and near-gymnastic fingering requirements. Less virtuosic though equally inspired is Duarte's Musikones, a five-movement suite featuring three Terpsichores that clearly give a melodic nod to Erik Satie's first three Gnossiennes. Here Duarte's improvisational brilliance transforms Satie's meditations into bizarre sinister dances.
As usual, Naxos' sound is excellent, with Goni's guitar amply detailed in a dry acoustic setting. Duarte's rather personable notes read like reflections, briefly outlining his life, the selections, and his overall raison d'être. Naxos' ongoing Guitar Collection series has continued to offer many outstanding recitals of works by unjustly neglected composers. Adam Holzman's recent program of Antonio Lauro's Venezuelan Waltzes, as well as Richard Cobo's first volume in what eventually will be a complete cycle of Leo Brouwer's guitar works are cases in point and should not be missed. Nor should this outstanding, very pleasurable disc. --John Greene, ClassicsToday.com
Having previously recorded the Baroque greats such as Handel and Vivaldi, Pamela completes her anthology of eighteenth century favorites with Telemann's Recorder Sonatas and Fantasias. Telemann's legacy as a composer of recorder music is among the richest of the age. The warmth and conviviality of Telemann's writing, the easy beauty of his melodies, as well as the knowing playfulness and ingenuity across many national styles are fully explored in this engaging program. Pamela utilizes a range of recorders in many sizes, known to players in the eighteenth century but only recently again perfected by makers for modern use. Accompanying Pamela are Ensemble Marsyas' Peter Whelan (bassoon), Alison McGillivray (cello), Elizabeth Kenny (archlute/guitar) and Marcin Swiatkiewicz (harpsichord/organ). Telemann's virtuosic 'concerto style' writing provides many opportunities for Pamela to further cement her deserved reputation as 'queen of the recorder'. Pamela Thorby has an international reputation as the UK's most stylish and creative recorder virtuoso. Pamela is most regularly heard on Karl Jenkins' fabulous Adiemus recordings making her possibly one of the most listened to recorder players in the world. Pamela's ability to assimilate many genres of music and her love of improvisation has led to collaborations with leading jazz, folk and pop musicians in an influential career in which she has travelled the world as concerto soloist, chamber musician and orchestral principal. Pamela's numerous and diverse recordings include acclaimed chamber music albums with the much admired Palladian Ensemble and a continuing series of highly praised solo recordings for Linn.
This album features two guitar arrangements of Mexican traditional music, performed by the Aleph Duo, made up of Gustavo Camacho Gomez and Eric Trejo Santiago. Gustavo Camacho Gomez holds a Bachelor in Classical Guitar from the Superior School of Music of the INBA. He is currently studying for his Master’s Degree at the Mozarteum University of Salzburg, Austria. He teaches at the State School of Music of Tabasco, and is an undergraduate professor at the State Institute of Culture of the State of Tabasco. Eric Trejo Santiago holds a Bachelor in Classical Guitar from the Superior School of Music of the INBA. He is currently pursuing a master’s degree at the Hochschule fur Musik “Hanns Eisler” zBerlin, where he is a beneficiary of the FONCA-CONACYT Scholarship Program for Study Abroad. Along with his classical training, he practices different currents of contemporary music, free jazz, and free improvisation. In 2010, he was part of the free improvisation quintet Synergia Ensemble with which he gave two concerts at the International University Music Festival in Belfort, France.
Homages and dedications often have a veiled mystique: the relationship between the composer and somebody else, a story and emotional experience hidden in the music. + Homages are created from the heart; to whom they are dedicated is not always easy to fathom, but they can speak and bloom as though they were only written for oneself, creating a poetry and beauty which fills the hearts of listeners. + Available on Signum, “Homages” is an album by Swiss-born guitarist Christoph Denoth featuring works for guitar solo by Villa-Lobos, de Falla, Turina, Rodrigo, Sor, Malats, da Narvaez and Llobet.
Traveling Sonata: European Music For Flute & Guitar
Reference Recordings
CD
$18.99Jan 01, 2012
An adventurous program of European masterworks for flute and guitar from scintillating young artists Viviana Guzman and Jeremy Jouve, captured brilliantly by Grammy®-winning recording engineer Keith O. Johnson. A winner for all audiophiles and music lovers! This album is a musical journey full of emotion, from the soothing and mellow music of Fauré and Satie, and the driving excitement of “Bolero” and “Carmen,” to thrilling modern music by Dyens, Duplessy, and Ourkouzounov.
Described by the New York Times as “an imaginative artist,” Chilean-born flutist, Viviana Guzmán performs over 80 concerts a year throughout the world. She has been featured on programs for PBS, NBC, and NPR, seen on the cover of Latina Style Magazine, and in COSMOPOLITAN en Español and has played in 118 countries including South Africa, Ireland, Spain, Brazil, Bali, India, Peru, and Greece featuring flutes from her collection of over 100 gathered from concert tours.
Guitarist Christoph Denoth returns with a new album of works inspired by South America, centered on the iconic tango. The continent of South America, with its diverse countries and various lines of historical development, has stimulated the creation of many musical traditions. But throughout the heterogeneous patterns of culture, the guitar has a central part to play as a national instrument in all South American countries. This selection (titled tanguero, describing one who sings or dances the tango) brings together many of the styles and genres of that vast continent in a colorful blend of melodies, rhythms, and harmonies. Christoph Denoth was born in Basel, Switzerland, and spent an important part of his early life in the Swiss mountains. His extraordinary musical talent became apparent early on, at which stage he already loved the guitar. He began his concert career at age 15. His studies of the classical guitar led him to the conservatories of Lucerne, Basel, and Zurich. He attended master classes with Pepe Romero and others and trained as a soloist with Oscar Ghiglia at the Basel Musikakademie. He regularly performs as a soloist with chamber orchestras and ensembles such as the Nouvel Ensemble Contemporain (Peter Maxwell Davies) or the Offenburger Streichtrio, and at international music festivals such as that of Schleswig-Holstein. He has also performed as a soloist at Carnegie Hall in New York, at the Berlin Philharmonie, and at the Salzburg Mozarteum.
This album comprises nine solo and chamber compositions written over a span of more than fifty years. Although none of these pieces uses any Asian instruments, most of them contain some kind of Asian cultural references. All of them were composed for the performers who have recorded them. __ David Loeb
Bach: The Sonatas & Partitas For Solo Violin / Eliot Fisk
Nimbus
CD
$20.99Mar 11, 2016
Guitarist Eliot Fisk is known worldwide as a charismatic performer famed for his adventurous and virtuosic repertoire. He is also celebrated for his willingness to take art music into unusual venues (including schools, senior centers, logging camps, and prisons). After 45 years before the public he remains, as his mentor Andres Segovia once wrote, "at the top line of our artistic world."
For Christy Doran and Stefan Banz, aerosols are an excellent metaphor for their intermedia collaboration between music and painting, in which they have explicitly sought to inspire and influence each other. Thus Banz has responded to five pieces of music composed for solo guitar and electronic devices by Doran with five new paintings in acrylic on cotton, and Doran in turn has responded to five paintings in acrylic on cotton by Banz with five new compositions for solo guitar and electronic devices. This publication contains the complete outcome of this fruitful collaboration, with additional texts by Stefan Banz and a link to a digital video animation of the total of ten music compositions and paintings
Bitter the Laughter, Sweet the Tears / Richter Uzur Duo
Centaur Records
CD
$17.99Jan 06, 2023
The Richter Uzur Duo approaches the concert stage with effortless virtuosity, soulful musicality and self-effacing humor. Trained in two of the world's most lauded musical institutions — The Royal College of Music and The Moscow Conservatory, respectively — guitarist Brad Richter and cellist Viktor Uzur are consummate performers and accomplished composers, each having played around the globe to critical acclaim and international awards. Together, the Richter Uzur Duo combines elements of classical music, rock, indigenous American music and Eastern European folk, all played with a native sense of vernacular, integrity and charm, producing a sound that is all their own.
Guitar aficionados need to hear Escobar’s absolutely stunning playing of un-hackneyed music.
Outside a small group of specialists the music of Chile is pretty much unknown in Europe. Of the names mentioned on this disc only Victor Jara and Violeta Parra can claim to be – or have been – anything approaching household names and then only within a more popular genre with political and/or social undertones.
The five composers represented here – four of them contemporaries – have assimilated elements from popular music or folk music and amalgamated them with academic compositional principles. The outcome is a programme with evocative rhythms, beautiful melodies and in some cases harsh harmonies.
What is also evident from the outset is the technical flair and brilliance of the playing. José Antonio Escobar is a fabulous guitarist, whose playing is so assured that it sounds more or less improvised. It sounds effortless – and that is not a euphemism for bland and unengaged – but he gives the impression that technical intricacies are no big deal; he can concentrate on shaping the music.
Javier Contreras is the youngest of the composers on this disc and he is also the boldest, harmonically speaking. Euclidica is virtuoso music, also requiring the player to treat the guitar as a percussion instrument. That also goes for Tonada del Retorno and Tonada a mi madre, which is fluent and vital music. The homage to Victor Jara is tranquil and here the composer has adjusted to the style in which Jara himself played.
Horacio Salinas was in the 1980s leader of the group Inti-illmani, which cooperated with John Williams; Cristalino is a reminder of that relationship. It is a movement from a longer work that would have been interesting to hear complete. It is beautiful and melodious, changing directions constantly.
Antonio Restucci’s music is also virtuosic and he has a nice feeling for melody. It is rhythmically attractive and there is more than a whiff of Argentina about it.
With Juan Antonio Sánchez we find this mix of popular and serious elements mentioned above very pronounced. It is paired with a sense of improvisation, which turns out to be truer than I first understood. For this is exactly the case: he allows the player freedom to use his imagination. Chiloética has much of this sense all through, though I don’t know to what degree Escobar plays ad lib. The guitar sonata, like so much else on this disc very recent music, has an opening movement that is dominated by the rhythmic elements, often jagged and ‘backward’. The second, Dulce, is exactly that: soft and contemplative. The third movement is quickly walking but with sudden pauses, and in the finale rhythm is again to the fore – most of it is percussive.
The sonata is a tribute to Violeta Parra, who is herself represented by 5 Anticuecas from 1961. These pieces were not written down. They were transcribed from her recordings after her death. One can hear phrases that are reminiscent of her songs but by and large this is music that stands out as highly original, not sophisticated but ‘real’. The simile may limp but this might be seen as a Chilean variant of blues. No. 5 is especially intense and – yes, bluesy.
The last word goes again to Sánchez, whose Tonada por despedita is intimate and melodious in a popular vein. One almost expects the player to start singing. As in every good encore he adds zest to the end through a sudden dramatic outburst.
Norbert Kraft and Bonnie Silver have provided ideal sound as usual. Juan Pablo González, Instituto de Música, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, gives much useful information on the composers and their music, even though I wish he had been allotted more space, since this is a field that is largely unknown to me.
Guitar aficionados need to hear Escobar’s absolutely stunning playing. Having played the disc three or four times I have come to terms with the music and found that it opens up and has something new to offer every time.
Six elegant, dark, sensuous soundscapes in which emotions seem to bubble just below cool surfaces. Harmonically rich and texturally subtle music that features idiosyncratic electric guitar playing techniques developed by composer/performer Cox, whom noted guitarist-composer Ry Cooder has called “a hidden master of the crepuscular and the diaphanous.” On this CD Cox is joined by celebrated composer/trumpeter Jon Hassell, popular film composer Thomas Newman (piano), and composer/performer/instrument designer Chas Smith (pedal steel guitar). The Wire magazine wrote of this album, “Gently undulating melodies are held in soft focus, without becoming cloying; [Cox’s] enveloping harmonies are less innocent than they first appear. Prettiness with a tough core.” And Fanfare magazine wrote, “If you imagine floating through the night sky on a large abstract tapestry, you’ll get a feeling for what Cox’s music is like.” Motion (UK), opined, “Quiet music of consummate musicianship…an achingly beautiful suite of pieces featuring slowly, oh-so-slowly shifting soundscapes. One of a kind and clear candidate for every ambienteer’s ‘Best of 2001’ list.”
The fourth and final volume in this important series! This new album showcases guitarist Roberto Moronn Perez performing works that are fundamental milestones of the guitar repertoire of the 20th century. Included are works by Alexandre Tansman, Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Hans Haug, Joan Manen and Federico Mompou. These works were also performed by Segovia himself during his lifetime. The genesis for this unique series is a collection of pieces recovered in May 2001 at Segovia's archive in Spain. All pieces in the archive were dedicated to Segovia or commissioned by him, involving composers from eight countries. This new album was recorded in the lovely acoustics of Holy Trinity Church, Weston, Hertfordshire, U.K. It was produced, recorded, edited and mastered by the outstanding U.K. engineer John Taylor.
Musica de las Americas, Vol. 7: Agua y Vino / Laguna
Urtext
CD
$16.99Nov 23, 2018
Winner of countless important competitions around the world and recipient of numerous academic and merit-based awards, Juan Carlos Laguna is nowadays not only a world-renowned performer, but also an internationally recognized educator. He is a full professor at the Faculty of Music of Mexico's National University and is the Artistic Director of the Taxco International Guitar Festival as well as the Artistic Director of the National University’s Guitar Festival. In this album Mr. Laguna has gathered a selection of previously recorded works, performed with some of his closest friends. With an emphasis on Mexican music, the repertoire also includes works by composers from other latitudes of Latin America. The program includes three works for solo guitar: La Catedral (The cathedral) by Barrios Mangoré, Agua y Vino (Water and Wine) by Gismonti and Seis Milonga (Six Milonga) by Ernesto Cordero. Other works include Por Siempre Sabines (Forever Sabines) for soprano and guitar, by Julio César Oliva, Tocata para flauta y guitarra (Toccata for flute and guitar) by Eduardo Angulo, Muy Cerca (Very Close) for cello and guitar, by Eduardo Gamboa and Fantasía Mulata (Mulatto Fantasy) for flute and guitar, by Ernesto Cordero.
Music From The Novels Of Louis De Bernières / Stephens, Odgen
Chandos
CD
$21.99Oct 01, 1999
This disc is pure joy… Craig Ogden… has always chosen his recital programmes with wisdom, and, as a performer in the specialised realm of the classical guitar, he has opened our ears to the instrument's breadth of repertory and to its expressive potential. -- The Daily Telegraph "CD of the Week"
Albeniz, Boccherini, Et Al / Rey De La Torre, Et Al
Bridge Records
CD
$18.99Apr 25, 2006
In the decades since the review disc material was originally recorded there has been exponential growth in interest in the classical guitar. Paralleling this are the numbers of people who play to concert standards and of those preoccupied with the short history of the instrument and its past champions.
During the period from the late 1940s to the mid-1960s the great José Rey de la Torre made twelve commercial recordings none of which are currently available. The review disc comprises material originally released in late 1950 or 1951 on the Philharmonia label (PH 106), later re-released on Elektra (EKL 244) and then again on Nonesuch (H-7123). It also includes a 1950 rendition of the Boccherini Quintet in D major featuring the Stuyvesant String Quartet (Philharmonia PH 101). The final track is a previously unissued live performance of Etude No. 11 by Villa-Lobos.
Rey de la Torre was born in Gibara, Cuba in 1917 and died on 21 July 1994 in San José, California. A child prodigy, he studied guitar in Havana with Severino Lopez, a student of Miguel Llobet. In 1932 his family sent him to Barcelona to study under Llobet.
On 9 May 1934 Llobet presented him in a concert at the Academia Marshall together with a pianist and then shortly after in a solo recital. Both received rave reviews from the tough Barcelona critics. Catalan composer and critic Jaime Pahissa described Rey as the most complete guitarist he had heard. Another critic compared him not only with Llobet but also with Pablo Casals.
Rey moved to the U.S.A. in 1937 or 1938 to establish his concert career. Motivated in particular by homesickness he made several return trips to Cuba to give concerts after which his family moved from Cuba to New York to support him.
Around 1961, right at a time when his career was flourishing, he suffered a setback: the middle finger of his right hand became less responsive and was a challenge for a number of years until Marianne Eppens, a physical therapist, was able to isolate the cause and offer a remedy. In 1969 they were married and moved to California. In 1975 at the zenith of his career Rey was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis, a disease which ended his performing career a year later.
The guitar playing on the review disc is quite inspiring. Informative and comprehensive notes accompanying this disc refer to Rey’s ‘poetic, precise, playing still evident half a century on - his rich resonant tone, his exquisite phrasing and sense of line, his bravura technique and profound musicality’. Testimonial of these qualities is readily found on the disc including a splendid rendition of Albeniz’s Torre Bermeja - The Crimson Tower [2]. We are reminded in the notes that, unlike much of what is recorded today, this particular recording was made without any edits.
Rey premiered Six Variations on a Theme by Milan [5] by composer/pianist Joaquin Nin-Culmell on 10 November 1947. Of him the composer said: ‘As a young player he was astounding. His playing was aristocratic and exact, quite different from the romantic, improvisational school of Segovia.’
The hitherto unreleased live performance of Etude No. 11 by Villa-Lobos is highly evocative of actually being at that very concert, coughs and all - not to mention the beautiful live guitar playing.
Given the vintage of the recordings the overall sonic qualities are quite good. No master tape was available for the solo recording so it was restored from a copy of the Elektra LP. The live recording of the Villa-Lobos Study has an eerie life-like quality.
Particularly touching is the great reverence, admiration and affection with which students, friends and associates refer to Rey de la Torre - also known as José, or Che - by that select group. Much of this is encapsulated in what ex-student Anthony Weller wrote in the accompanying notes: ‘Sometimes it is difficult to grasp how very quickly the vagaries of time can erase a performer’s legacy; the familiar name becomes an unfamiliar ghost. Now the classical guitar audience will have one of the instrument’s greatest poets, at his magnificent best, before them again, more than half a century later. May he never be forgotten.’
We can only hope that, like Mr Weller, future champions will emerge to ensure that past great exponents of the guitar, such as Jose Luis Gonzalez (1932-1998) will never become unfamiliar ghosts but forever be remembered for their magnificent contributions when the guitar had so few of their kind.
This is a highly important historical recording by one of the instrument’s greatest exponents.
This album came to me in a fit of stillness. I had been moving so much and for so long that I forgot that my favorite thing to do is to just sit. Sitting in stillness involves watching, waiting, listening, and observing. It involves becoming aware of the edges of things - in my case, where my body ends and the chair begins, where a bird call starts and a melody has always existed, where a cloud has always been a storm and the storm is me. When I wrote these songs, I was sitting still and looking at the sea. Yes, the actual sea, but also the sea of my childhood and the sea of my recurring dreams. In the process of writing, I've learned that if I look long enough, rooms that I didn't previously have access to emerge, floating in front of me like hard working tugboats, pulling behind them all the postcards that I've written to myself. I've learned that if I listen long enough, a vine will always grow out my head and become a phone cord, connecting me to all the times I've wanted to tell you I love you and have held it back. - Alex Sopp
Kermit Poling writes music that is beautifully crafted, and immediately accessible. It is full of beautiful, melodic lines. The Guitar concerto, written for Guitarist Giovanni De Chiaro, who performs it here, is one of the greatest guitar concertos of the past 50 years. Named by Forum Magazine as one of the top ten faces to watch, Kermit Poling is celebrating his 22nd season as Music Director of the South Arkansas Symphony and his 27th season as Music Director of the Shreveport Metropolitan Ballet. He is in his 31st year as Associate Conductor of the Shreveport Symphony, an orchestra where he also was Concertmaster for over 27 years. He has produced the Shreveport Symphony’s broadcast series since 1987, having also produced radio programming for WBUR Boston and other public radio stations. He serves as General Manager of the Red River Radio public radio network at LSUS having been appointed to the position in 2006. In 2015 he became music director of the Marshall Symphony Orchestra in Texas. “The Romantic spirit lives, breathes, and flourishes in Kermit Poling.” (Fanfare Magazine)
David Starobin returns to the music of leading Italian composer/guitarist, Mauro Giuliani (1781-1829), with a disc featuring Giuliani's solo and chamber music. Among the rarities are Two Rondos, op. 68, for piano and guitar, performed with the Israeli pianist, Inon Barnatan; Variations, op. 24a, played with Amalia Hall, winner of the Postacchini International Violin Competition (2013); and Variations on a March by Cherubini, arguably the finest solo of the composer's late period. The Italian journal Il Fronimo (Milan) wrote of Starobin: "David Starobin has grasped the authentic spirit, aided by his perfect instrumental technique. Here, the music acquires its truest meaning, exalting the quality of phrasing as it is rarely ever heard. Starobin's is a truly influential artistry, a great personality who does honor to both music and the guitar." - Bridge Records
Spain and the guitar - an inseparable combination. Serenades of Spain goes beyond cliches, unveiling the rich musical heritage of both the country and the guitar, and takes the listener on a journey through three guitars: baroque, romantic, and classical - both solo and in duo with voice or cello. Featuring works by Spanish composers and those inspired by Spain, this album blends Flemish Renaissance court music, Baroque dances, expressive romanticism, neocasticismo, impressionistic colors, and folklore - a vibrant mosaic of Spain's musical history and the guitar.
Guitarist Daniel Lippel's "Adjacence" features a collection of new chamber works for guitar, including works by Tyshawn Sorey, Charles Wuorinen, Tania Leon, Nico Muhly, Mario Davidovsky, Ken Ueno, Peter Gilbert, Tonia Ko, Bernadette Speech, Peter Adriaansz, and Sidney Boquiren. The works occupy a broad range of aesthetics, from modernist to minimalist, incorporating improvisation and microtonality, and featuring a variety of instrumentations with Lippel's colleagues in the International Contemporary Ensemble, counter)induction, as well as other active performers in the New York contemporary music scene.
Edvard Grieg: Lyric Pieces (Arr. P. Fletcher for Guitar)
Centaur Records
CD
$18.99Feb 25, 2014
A recital of Edvard Grieg's lovely Lyric Pieces for piano, transcribed for solo guitar. Guitarist Peter Fletcher wrote the transcriptions for this recording. Mr. Fletcher is in demand as a performer in cultural venues throughout the United States. '... strong technique, a consistent tone, and a bold interpretive imagination... ' - American Record Guide.
