Federico Moreno Torroba composed about one hundred works for the guitar, thereby reinforcing his status as one of Spain's great twentieth-century composers. Homenaje a la seguidilla pays lively tribute to that characteristically Spanish song and dance, while the Tonada concertante is in turns playful and introspective. Concierto de Castilla features a free-spirited lyricism evocative of the folklore of Castile, a vast expanse in the middle of Spain with which the composer strongly identified. "You would expect Pepe Romero to excel at the Concierto en Flamenco...The piece is gorgeous, the performance vibrant and passionate...The soloist in Dialogos is Romero's gifted pupil, Vicente Coves, who plays as well as his mentor, and whose brother leads the orchestra vividly and sympathetically." (ClassicsToday.com on Volume 1, 8573255)

Multi award-winning Peruvian-Austrian tenor Juan Diego Flórez has now founded his own label. The first album of the label to be released is dedicated to the zarzuela genre. It also marks the star tenor‘s first recording with Sinfonía por el Perú Youth Orchestra and Choir, an organization that forms part of the social project he founded and supports. This first recording is led by conductor Guillermo García Calvo, who looks back on a long international career and has been Music Director of the Teatro de la Zarzuela between 2020 and 2024. A tour to major European arts centers featuring selected romances and orchestral pieces accompanies the release.

Juan Diego Flórez has made a name for himself as a bel canto specialist in particular. By turning to “zarzuela,” he returns to the genre with which he opened up the world of opera as a young singer and composer of popular songs. “These romances full of passion and emotion represent an almost unique opportunity for Spanish and Latin American tenors to sing in their mother tongue,” he says, describing his close connection to this Spanish form of opéra comique or operetta, which is very well-known and popular in the Hispanic world but less represented in other countries. By founding his own label, Juan Diego Flórez pursues the goal of documenting his artistic visions in a self-determined way.

The next releases include both solo albums, orchestra recitals, as well as complete operas. Having his own label also gives him the opportunity to support projects with Sinfonía por el Perú as well as promote young artists. “This recording production certainly fills me with happiness and pride. Firstly, because it represents my first recording with the Youth Orchestra and Choir of Sinfonía por el Perú - a social movement that seeks to improve the lives of Peruvian children and youngsters through the collective practice of music; secondly, because it was done in Lima, my hometown; and thirdly, because it constitutes the launch of my own record label." Juan Diego Flórez

In June of 1922, a cultural fiesta took place on the grounds of Granada’s Alhambra palace, organized by Manuel de Falla and Federico García Lorca. The aim of the event was to preserve the ‘purity’ of flamenco art and the opening performance was given by 29-year-old guitarist Andrés Segovia. Ironically, Segovia played de Falla’s Hommage to Claude Debussy (featured on this album) – a work which can hardly be described as pure flamenco. But this can be seen as symptomatic of an important trait in the music of 20th-century Spain: Certain composers defended what they believed to be a noble, gallant and Castilian ideal, while others embarked on an quest to restore the ‘lost purity’ of the peasantry, but embracing Modernism and Impressionism as stylistic tools in order to do so. This is demonstrated on Franz Halász’s new disc, which provides a context – Milán’s Pavanes from the 16th century, Fernando Sor’s ‘Malbroug’ Variations from 1827 – while juxtaposing later works that embody the described, conflicting attitudes. This makes for a colorful and varied program, taking in highlights in the guitar literature such as Tárrega’s Recuerdos de la Alhambra as well as Joaquín Turina’s Guitar Sonata, here recorded – for the first time – from a copy of Turina’s original manuscript, and not Segovia’s published version with numerous changes. The winner of a Latin Grammy, Franz Halász is a highly acclaimed guitarist who here also makes his own contribution to the repertoire of his instrument, with his own arrangements of de Falla and Isaac Albéniz.

REVIEW:

This varied, highly atmospheric album of Spanish guitar music gives Halasz the opportunity to use a multiplicity of stylistic elements, and his sense of dramatic progression is particularly impressing. Joy of playing, love for the instrument and the music, are further essential components of his interpretations, making this a valuable and attractive recording.

– Pizzicato (Remy Franck)

"The Tres temas de recuerdos are inspired chapters of memory that Jaume Pahissa (1880-1969) composed for guitar in 1938 in Argentina, evoking nostalgia for his distant Catalan homeland that he was forced to leave in 1937 owing to the Spanish civil war. Besides their meditative beauty, these pieces also offer us the inspiration for the title of this release, similarly prompted by 'recollections'. This is expressed, in fact, through a programme that to a great extent embodies the special role played by 'memory', thanks to various pieces that engender emotional reference within the collective imaginary. Pieces that are deeply rooted in the conscience of those who love the guitar and it's close association with it's most representative historical figures. Alongside these pieces inspired by memory, their composers and their arrangers, and the symbolic reality that each of them reveals, I have added other works, perhaps less familiar to the public at large. These are instead linked - more or less openly - to my more personal references, associated with the passing of my own experience; so these too, on account of their individual peculiarity, are included as part of the Temas de recuerdos that I am proposing here, in the hope that they can also become such for the listener. That is, I attempt to understand the reason for this more personal association in certain pieces that are particularly suitable for the purpose, by exploring them from within: like reflecting oneself in one's own reiterated sonic presence, almost wishing to find a secret account of the steps of one's own story. The hope is to unveil within the identity of these themes the birth of an unforeseen source of affection for our own life." (Stefano Grondona)

Eugenio Della Chiara got his degree in classical guitar with full marks and honors at the Conservatoire of Pesaro. Among the Maestros he studied with three are Beppe Ficara, Andrea Dieci and Oscar Ghiglia, whose course he attended at the Accademia Chigiana of Siena. In parallel with his musical studies, he completed his education in humanities at the Università Cattolica of Milan, obtaining a degree in Modern Philology. He has performed in Japan, Austria, Germany, Hungary, Turkey, Spain, Norway, Denmark and Eire. In Italy he has performed solo recitals for some of the main musical institutions of the country. Between 2018 and 2021, he recorded three albums as a soloist for DECCA. He collaborates with violinist Piercarlo Sacco, guitarist Andrea Dieci, pianist Alberto Chines, messo-soprano Teresa Iervolino, tenors Juan Francisco Gatell and Mert Süngü. Together with Alessio Boni, he has staged ''Tutto il resto è silenzio'', a reading from Shakespeare's Hamlet accompanied seventeenth-century English music. More than twenty solo and chamber works were dedicated to him by composers like Carlo Galante, Orazio Sciortino, Roberto Tagliacollo, Davide Anzaghi and others. He has several world première recordings at his credit, among which the Sonata composed by Luciano Chailly in 1976 stand out. He has been teaching in the Italian Stte Conservatoires since 2017. He plays guitars by Domingo Esteso (Madrid 1935) and Lucio Carbone (Milano 2021)