Thibaut Garcia is one of the most acclaimed classical guitarists of his generation, praised for a playing style that combines virtuosity and poetic sensitivity. Born from a deep artistic friendship with guitarist Antoine Morinere, this album offers a fresh take on Bach's masterpiece Goldberg Variations, now reimagined for two guitars. The arrangement, from Garcia and Moriniere themselves, is the result of a full year of work during which, quoting the artists, they focused on "how to adapt the keyboard work for two guitars, while preserving the illusion of a single performer". Twin guitars helped in their artistic endeavour: the album is recorded on two guitars cut from the same tree, and realized especially for the project by French luthier Hugo Cuvillier.
Thibaut Garcia is one of the most acclaimed classical guitarists of his generation, praised for a playing style that combines virtuosity and poetic sensitivity. Born from a deep artistic friendship with guitarist Antoine Morinere, this album offers a fresh take on Bach's masterpiece Goldberg Variations, now reimagined for two guitars. The arrangement, from Garcia and Moriniere themselves, is the result of a full year of work during which, quoting the artists, they focused on "how to adapt the keyboard work for two guitars, while preserving the illusion of a single performer". Twin guitars helped in their artistic endeavour: the album is recorded on two guitars cut from the same tree, and realized especially for the project by French luthier Hugo Cuvillier.
2020 release. Expressing his own cultural identity, guitarist Thibaut Garcia combines Rodrigo's archetypally Spanish Concierto de Aranjuez with a declaration of l'esprit francais: Alexandre Tansman's neoclassical Musique de cour, inspired by the court of Louis XIV. Garcia's heritage is Spanish, but he is French, born in the city of Toulouse, where this album was recorded with the Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse and the young British conductor Ben Glassberg. It is completed by four solo pieces by Regino Sainz de la Maza, the guitarist who gave the premiere of the Concierto de Aranjuez in 1940.
Falla: El Amor Brujo (1915 Version) / Gil-Ordonez, Perspectives Ensemble
Naxos
CD
$19.99May 10, 2019
There have been a couple of recordings of El amor brujo in its original, two-act chamber version of 1915, but this one is as fine as any and just might be the best around. Conductor Angel Gil-Ordóñez chooses ideal tempos, the members of the Perspectives Ensemble play beautifully, and everyone seems genuinely involved in projecting Falla’s characterful instrumental parts with just the right combination of precision and warmth. Cantaora (singer) Esperanza Fernández sings with fervor and her voice, while raw and “popular,” at least remains in tune. She lacks the artistry and sensitivity of more professionally trained singers such as the incomparable Nati Mistrál on Decca, but in these surroundings it hardly matters.
The original version really is a different work: longer, with a slightly different plot that need not concern us, and despite using much of the same music often quite different in sound and texture. You can compare the two in the sound clips below. The revised version for full orchestra sounds more mysterious, more “impressionistic” if you will, while the original is leaner in outline but also definitely more rhythmically persistent and sinister. The only disadvantage to the original, in my opinion, is the generous amount of spoken dialog, which must be irritating even to native speakers when the music is so beautiful. You wish Fernández would offer less talk and more music.
Speaking of talk, Master Peter’s Puppet Show has a plot straight from Cervantes’ Don Quixote, and consists of wonderful musical bits connected by long stretches of recitative narration. The scoring is extremely imaginative, with the chamber ensemble featuring a harpsichord (played by Wanda Landowska at the premiere), and colorful parts for brass and percussion. What singing there is comes off quite well, with Jennifer Zetlan doing her best with the ungrateful part of the narrator. The plot, in case you don’t already know the original, is simplicity itself. At a roadside inn Master Peter puts on a puppet show set in the time of Charlemagne about the rescue of a damsel in distress. Don Quixote becomes thoroughly confused and takes the whole thing rather too seriously. Chaos ensues. That’s it.
Once again the performance is excellent from all concerned, and both pieces are very well recorded. Provided you have time to sit down and follow both not-terribly-long works booklet in hand, in this case thoughtfully containing texts and English translations, this release earns an easy and well-deserved recommendation.
Born in Havana in 1954, the Miami-based Orlando Jacinto Garcia studied with Morton Feldman and has inherited some of Feldman's concerns. His music likewise evolves gradually over slow-moving spans of time- here and there with an echo of West Coast minimalism. Like the still surface of the sea, the works on this album (three of them concertante pieces for virtuoso soloists) mirror the unhurried movement of natural phenomena. They often feature textures of considerable delicacy- and occasionally hint at larger forces behind the apparent stasis. This album presents some of his most recent choral compositions, in recordings conducted by the composer. Violinist Jennifer Choi is a frequent collaborator with composers, and has premiered solo and chamber works written for her by several well-known contemporary composers. Pianist Cristina Valdes is known for presenting innovative concerts with repertoire ranging from Bach to Xenakis. Fernando Dominguez, clarinet, is the leading exponent of the contemporary repertoire for clarinet in Mexico.
Described as “evocative” and “kaleidoscopic” (NY Times), composer Scott Wollschleger’s music is at times deconstructive, disembodied, and dystopic, but always infused with awe and wonder. Wollschleger probes timbre, instrumental relationships, and aesthetic implications to find transcendent moments in unique textures in this remarkable recording featuring performances by soprano Corrine Byrne, trumpeter Andy Kozar, violist Anne Lanzilotti, cellist John Popham, pianist Karl Larsen, Mivos Quartet, and Longleash trio. Scott Wollschleger is a Brooklyn-based composer of solo, chamber, and dramatic music. His distinct musical language explores themes of art in dystopia, the conceptualization of silence, synesthesia, and creative repetition in form. Wollschleger’s concert works have been performed across the United States and the world, including the International Music Institute at Darnstadt, the Festival of New American Music in Sacramento, the Bang on a Can Festival at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, and the MATA Festival Interval Series. His music is published by Project Schott New York.
After the first two volumes dedicated to the greatest Spanish guitarists, the series Master of Guitar presents in this third volume a collection of five great Cuban guitarists. Famous names like Osé Rey de la Torre and Leo Brouwer join other less known performers like Elias Barreiro, Hector Garcia and Juan Mercadal. The recorded repertoire ranges from classical works from the seventeenth Century like Gaspar Sanz to the traditional transcription of J.S.Bach, from Carulli to the most famous Spanish works, and finally we arrive in the end to the most modern and new repertoire represented by Leo Brower, Elogio della Danza. All of the tracks are taken by sources which are now unavailable and are presented here on this release that must become a staple in the collections of all guitar lovers.
Nashville-based Cristina Spinei (b. 1984) is a Latin Grammy nominated composer, who has consistently remained in high demand by choreographers, musicians, and film directors. Spinei is frequently commissioned by ensembles such as the Bohemian Trio, Denison University Orchestra, Gallim Dance, London Central School, the Metropolis Ensemble, New York Chamber Music Festival, and the Pacific Northwest Ballet, to name a few. The works on this release were all composed for dance, and include four string quartets, a duet for cello and percussion, and a piece for string orchestra. All of the pieces pulse with rhythmic energy and convey the American minimalist tradition. On the piece “Bootleg Sugar Lips,” which is included in this album, one reviewer writes: “[Bootleg Sugar Lips] was solidly minimalist in its aesthetic with a keen sense of large-scale form… Spinei was effective in creating enticing patterns and then drawing attention to a particular part, thereby creating a sense of large-scale melody and individual voices within a full texture…” (David Pearson of I Care if You Listen)
Legendary tango performer and composer Astor Piazzolla gained experience of jazz in New York and classical form and technique through studies with Alberto Ginastera. His work lends itself perfectly to arrangement for all kinds of ensemble, and this is the first recording with solo trombone. These popular pieces showcase the stunning playing of multi-award winning soloist Achilles Liarmakopoulos in a variety of moods, including the famous Oblivion, and Le Grand Tango, a virtuoso show-stopper originally written for cellist Mstislav Rostropovich.
'I haven't sat right through a CD of tangos until this one. Greek trombonist Achilles Liarmakopoulos, who plays with Canadian Brass, is an astonishing player, a musician of extraordinary subtlety and understatement. With the sweetest, most seductive tone imaginable, he glides through the Piazzolla classics, including the full Histoire du Tango, all three movements of the beautiful Serie del Angel, Michelangelo, Oblivion and a heart-wrenching, soulful rendition of Soledad. His group, including the great bandoneon player Hector del Curto, is superlative. An outstanding disc.' (Herald Scotland)
We could also have called this disc 'The Ilya Kaler Showcase', as he is the dazzling soloist in the Violin Concertos and the 24 Caprices. The American Record Guide described them as "in a class by themselves", and the Gramophone described him as "a first-rate fiddler". Paganini was such an incredible virtuoso that in his lifetime rumors were rife that he was possessed of the devil, a fact greatly inflamed by his appearance. He was also a highly suspicious man, the scores of his works for violin and orchestra being devoid of the violin part so that no one could become his rival in his own music. We know the date of composition of the second concerto as 1826, but the first is more doubtful, and probably as early as 1817. They are both demonstrations of violin technique, his frequent use of playing plucked notes (pizzicati) with the left hand creating a cascade of notes. He also composed a considerable amount of music for other instruments including works for violin and guitar, and the Gramophone magazine writing about the Cantone di Sonata included on this disc says "it is unlikely that the Centone will ever be better played".
The music which will be known to most is that by Villa-Lobos which here includes the Preludes and Choro No. 1. However the disc has much more to offer and much of it rarely played, with performances as good as these this situation should quickly change. Music by Savio, Bonf, Almeida, Machada, Baden Powell and Jobim is all beautifully played. Garcia has matured into a guitarist of stature and this is perhaps his best recording to date. - Classical Guitar - October 1990
The Five Preludes and the first Choro by Villa-Lobos are accompanied on this CD by a considerable number of Brazilian pieces of the more popular kind. That is not meant disparagingly: this is popular in the best sense, music easily accessible to untrained ears, yet good enough to be enjoyed by the most fastidious. Bonfá, Jobim, Almeida, Pernambuco, Baden-Powell and Machado fall into this category. They are well represented here. So is Isaias Savio, with a delightful Sonha laia, Seroros and the ever-popular Batucada... . The Preludes are given a good performance by Gerald Garcia. He plays all the repeats in No. 3, and manages to convince you that the exercise isn't as boring as it looks on paper. This in itself is a rare achievement. But Garcia has always been a characterful guitarist: his musical intelligence and perception are to be treasured in an age where bland fluency seems to carry off the major prizes in international competitions... . Garcia's own arrangements of three Brazilian children's songs are charming, and well worth a place... . A disc of unusual interest. - Guitar International - August 1990
"Garcia's performances are stylish and intense" - Fanfare
"all beautifully played. Garcia has matured into a guitarist of stature" - Guitar International
"Garcia has always been a characterful guitarist; his musical intelligence and perception are to be treasured... a disc of unusual interest" - Classical Guitar (UK)
