Brazilian Guitar Quartet

Spanish Dances BRAZILIAN GUITAR QUARTET 1 0 13491 34662 5 SPANISH DANCES • BRAZILIAN GUITAR QUARTET Manuel de Falla: Federico Mompou: Cuatro Piezas Españolas (15:42) from Cançons i Danses (13:23) 1. Aragonesa (3:08) 12. No.3, Modéré / Sardana - temps 2. Cubana (3:41) de marche (3:56) 3. Montañesa (4:11) 13. No.6, Cantabile espressivo / 4. Andaluza (4:42) Ritmado (3:54) 14. No.1, Quasi moderato / Allegro Enrique Granados: non troppo (2:26) from Goyescas, op.11 15. No.8, Moderato cantabile con 5. El fandango de candil (5:42) sentimento / Danza (3:07) Joaquin Turina: Manuel de Falla: from Tres Danzas Andaluzas, op.8 from La Vida Breve 6. Zapateado (4:41) 16. Danza Española No.2 (4:10) Joaquin Rodrigo: Isaac Albéniz: 7. Sonada de Adiós (Homenaje a 17. Azulejos Paul Dukas) (3:35) by Enrique Granados) (9:08) (incomplete; finished Cuatro Piezas (11:48) Enrique Granados: 8. Caleseras (2:00) from Goyescas, op.11 9. Fandango del ventorrillo (1:43) 18. El pelele (4:47) 10. Plegaria de la Infanta de Castilla (4:52) 11. Danza valenciana (2:53) Total Playing Time: 73:21 All arrangements by Tadeu do Amaral 2 As part of the Guitarrísimo series at Insti- NOTES ON THE PROGRAM: tuto Cervantes, it was my special pleasure to organize a concert tour of the Brazilian The Unique patterns and sounds of Spanish Guitar Quartet to many Brazilian cities music – as perhaps most idiomatically re- in 2009, presenting their adaptation for alized in the more than 1,000 dance forms guitar quartet of Albéniz’s Suite Iberia. native to the Iberian peninsula – is one of The freshness of the arrangements as well the richest cross-cultural amalgams to be as the brilliant interpretations captivated found anywhere. Its structural, harmonic audiences, and left me with a sense of ev- and rhythmic foundations go back as far as er-growing fascination. Their new album the Moorish invasions, the Medieval Sep- dedicated to – besides Albéniz – the great hardic Jews, and the glories of the Spanish Spanish composers de Falla, Granados, Renaissance. This broadly-based heritage, in Rodrigo, Turina and Mompou sets a new turn, was carried across the Atlantic to the standard for guitar quartet interpretations new world – where it became the primary of the Spanish repertoire. I am thrilled to foundation of Latin American music. discover – through this well-chosen program, so coherent and finely performed – Acknowledging their debt to Iberian musi- the deep Iberian roots of the instrument cal traditions, the members of the illustrious and its spectacular development in Brazil: Brazilian Guitar Quartet were inspired to a country that shares with Spain the guitar prepare a program devoted entirely to Span- as its favorite instrument. In this album, ish music. In this – the sixth of this Latin the BGQ again lays claim to the true “alma GRAMMY-winning ensemble’s recordings española” (Spanish soul), in all its richness for Delos – they pay passionate and sensi- and diversity. tive tribute to their old-world musical heritage. Their selections – some well-known, Francesc Puértolas some uncommon – are drawn mostly from Head, Department of Culture the piano compositions by the finest Span- Instituto Cervantes, Berlin ish composers of the 20th Century, expertly transcribed for guitar quartet by Tadeu do Amaral, the BGQ’s gifted arranger. 3 One could say that Isaac Albéniz (1860- Iberia – perhaps the most virtuosic piano 1909), Enrique Granados (1867-1916) collection of its day – was finished in 1909: and Manuel de Falla (1876-1946) form the last year of the composer’s life. Azule- the “great trinity” of Spanish nationalistic jos (track 17), the work from him heard music. All of them were deeply influenced here, was also written that year, though by the ideas of Felipe Pedrell (1841-1922), it was left unfinished when the compos- a Spanish composer and musicologist who er died (Granados completed it after his set the premises for composing music with death). Had he lived to finish it and go on a strong national identity and bearing the from there, it would have been the prelude particular influence of the flamenco, one of to a suite of similarly superlative pieces of Spain’s most prominent folkloric styles, es- the same name. Albéniz’s later music em- pecially throughout Andalusia. bodies the nationalistic influence in a way that is idiomatically true and highly evoc- In 2006, the BGQ released an entire al- ative, though at times striking the listener bum presenting Albéniz’s monumental as a Spanish take on the Impressionistic Suite Iberia – for the first time in an ar- style. No wonder composers like Debussy rangement for a guitar quartet. Critic and Messiaen praised the composer for his Arthur Nestrovsky, of the Brazilian news- masterly use of tone colors and effects. paper Folha de São Paulo, wrote that the arrangement was “the translation of the Azulejos is a rather intimate work, starting translation, taking the music back to its with a single line taken up by the 8-string origins.” The reviewer thus acknowledged guitar and slowly building up to more the fact that Albéniz sought inspiration complex textures and patterns that we (among other sounds and sights) in the could associate with the mosaic patterns different sonorities and stylistic nuances of seen in the many examples of decorative the guitar as played in the streets of various tile found in the Iberian Peninsula. The cities and regions of Spain – whose names music soon establishes a very entrancing Albéniz applied as the titles of the work’s atmosphere, with the theme meandering varied movements. through different contexts and tonalities, as well as – in the BGQ’s arrangement – 4 different guitars. After coming to an un- Northeast of Spain. It is followed by “Cu- expected pause near the end, the piece’s bana” (tr. 2), which – as the title implies opening line returns almost as a distant – evokes the Caribbean atmosphere of the remembrance, soon spreading out and former Spanish colony: sometimes relaxed fading away – gently punctuated by chords and contemplative, sometimes more pas- that slowly settle the mood down, but leave sionate and dance-like. a mysterious quality hanging in the air. “Montañesa” (tr. 3) depicts the Asturian Of our “trinity” of Spanish masters, de Fal- landscapes of Northern Spain and is the la is the only one who was actually born most intimate movement of the set, despite in Andalusia. His early studies in theology its lively, folk-inspired central passage. Fi- finally gave way to the conviction that his nally, the inspiration for “Andaluza” (tr. 4) is destiny was to become a musician – where- unmistakably the flamenco and particularly upon he moved to Madrid to study com- the cante jondo (a style of flamenco singing), position with the above-mentioned Felipe which in this arrangement is given voice by Pedrell. Later developments took him to the two 8-string guitars by turns. Paris, back to Madrid, then Granada; he finally emigrated to Argentina, following From de Falla’s rarely heard opera La Vida Franco’s victory in the Spanish Civil War. Breve (The Brief Life) comes “Danza Es- He excelled as a composer and is deservedly pañola No. 2” (tr. 16), which appears in seen as the successor to Albéniz and Grana- the opera’s second act; the operatic origi- dos. The Cuatro Piezas Españolas (Four nal is vocally punctuated. Indeed, this – as Spanish Pieces), dedicated to Albéniz, are well as the well-known No. 1 dance – has from his initial years in Madrid; they clearly been arranged for several different instru- convey the strong influence of folk music mental combinations; both are far bet- from various regions of his country. ter-known than the original opera. This is our program’s only work that was not orig- The work opens with “Aragonesa” (tr. 1), inally written for piano. The music is high- an elegant and rhythmically driven rendi- ly rhythmic and driven, full of bright tonal tion of the popular jota dance, from the colors and irresistible Spanish flavors. 5 Enrique Granados, the “Spanish Chopin,” which recurs throughout the whole piece: enjoyed – like Albéniz – an illustrious rep- sometimes isolated and sometimes in more utation during his lifetime, both as a com- complex figurations, they form sensual poser and as a pianist. His music for piano and sinuous lines that occasionally give evolved from a somewhat lighter Romantic way to strongly driven melodies. style to a more complex and nationalist-inspired idiom. One can’t help but notice “El Pelele” (The straw doll, tr. 18) con- the influence of Spanish painter Francisco cludes the original suite (and the album), Goya (1746-1828) in some of his most almost as a “cherry-on-top” offering to the important works – like Goyescas, op.11, a listener after the preceding movements’ cycle from which the BGQ performs two dense and complex characteristics. There movements in this program. The work is actually is a painting by Goya bearing this subtitled “Los majos enamorados” (The exact title, depicting a scene of popular Gallants in love), and in spite of the direct amusement wherein a straw puppet is be- inspiration, it is debatable whether there ing tossed high up in the air by a group are particular associations of movements of women: an image that is wonderfully with specific works by the Spanish painter. conveyed by Granados’ exuberant music. “El fandango del candil” (Fandango by Following the 1907 première of his Piano candlelight, tr. 5) is based on the typical Quintet, Op. 1, Joaquin Turina (1882- couple-dance in triple meter that originat- 1949) met with de Falla and Albéniz to ed as early as the 16th century.

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