JOAQUÍN RODRIGO although no guitarist himself, was intimately JOAQUíN RODRIGO Concierto de Aranjuez acquainted with the instrument and its history. Fantasía para un gentilhombre Indeed, many of his guitar compositions Elogio de la guitarra celebrate the finest guitarists and lutenists of Concierto de Aranjuez (1939) both the recent present and the distant past. 1 I. Allegro con spirito [6.21] Deep inside Joaquín Rodrigo, there was a man His Sarabanda Lejana is dedicated to the 2 II. Adagio [11.37] from the Golden Age, Spanish to the core. His ‘vihuela of Luis Milán’, the Concierto de Aranjuez 3 III. Allegro gentile [5.22] personality and figure always reminded me of was written for Regino Sainz de la Maza, while one of those plebeian noblemen that Velazquez, Narciso Yepes and Manuel Lopez Ramos are Ribera or Murillo liked to paint. He was shrewd, similarly honoured with dedicated works. Fantasía para un gentilhombre (1954) rapid, and witty … his music is light but not Naturally, Andrès Segovia, the man who, in 4 I. Villano y Ricercare [5.02] commonplace, it is full of joy and at the same the twentieth century, established the guitar 5 II. Españoleta y Fanfare de la Caballería de Napoles [9.19] time full of melancholy, it is fresh but not internationally and inspired generations of 6 III. Danza de las hachas [2.05] ingenuous … Perhaps for that reason, the most guitarists of every musical hue, was not to be immortal of his music goes hand in hand with denied, and indeed himself commissioned the 7 IV. Canario [5.31] the most deeply rooted Spanish traditions: the delectable Fantasia para un gentilhombre. guitar of Gaspar Sanz, the madrigal, the Elogio de la guitarra (1971) villancico (Spanish Christmas carol) or the Rodrigo was born in Sagunto in the Province of 8 I. Allegro [5.28] poetry of Saint John of the Cross. Valencia on 22 November 1901, the day of the 9 II. Andantino [4.18] From “En busca del más allá” by Alvaro Marías; ABC, Roman Catholic feast of St Cecilia, the patron Madrid, July 7, 1999 saint of music (his only child was born on 0 III. Allegro [4.52] Mozart’s birthday – Rodrigo’s favourite Published in the Spanish press at the time of composer). As a result of a diphtheria epidemic Total timings: [59.57] Rodrigo’s death, this account is a poetically he became severely visually impaired in 1905 accurate summation of Rodrigo and his music. and attended a college for blind children Imbued with the literature and traditions of his where his interest in music and literature was CHARLES RAMIREZ GUITAR native Spain, it is little wonder that more encouraged. Having already completed several CHAMBER ORCHESTRA OF EUROPE than 40 of his works include a prominent role for well-received orchestral and chamber works as DOUGLAS BOYD CONDUCTOR the national instrument, the guitar. Rodrigo, a young man, he followed his musical www.signumrecords.com - 3 - compatriots and forebears, Isaac Albéniz and respective instruments, and like the Tchaikovsky Narciso Yepes was introduced to Rodrigo, who orchestral sonority make for a work which is Manuel de Falla to Paris, where he studied it has spawned numerous musical arrangements gave him the manuscript. Rising to the challenge both modern and, as Rodrigo put it, with the fine composer and great teacher, and popular interpretations, most strikingly of the new and formidable technical difficulties ‘neo-casticisma’ – ‘faithful to tradition’. The Paul Dukas. There he met Falla who soon from the world of jazz. Miles Davis and Gil in the guitar part, Yepes’ performances in the great British guitarist, Julian Bream, had this to befriended the younger man and continually Evans famously arranged the slow movement late 1940s, when still only in his early 20s, say about Rodrigo on his death: ‘The success championed his music. The Spanish Civil War of the Concierto on the album Sketches of Spain brought international fame to the work as well as of Concierto de Aranjuez has somehow eclipsed left the composer and his wife stranded in and The Modern Jazz Quartet recorded their recognition of his own talent. His first performance Rodrigo’s other works. They need to be brought Germany in 1936, eventually returning to Paris, version a number of times. Songs based on or in Paris brought forth the following rave review out and rediscovered, and Rodrigo should not where in 1938, and with the encouragement of quoting the Concierto have also been recorded by from the respected journal, The Strad be considered the author of only one work the guitarist, Regino Sainz de la Maza, Rodrigo the likes of The Shadows, Fairuz, Demis Roussos, because the future will undoubtedly reveal began composing the Concierto de Aranjuez. Led Zeppelin and Buckethead. Known in the A concert with the Paris Conservatoire other treasures to us’. More than ten years on, The success of the concerto secured the brass band world as ‘Concerto de Orange Juice’, Orchestra ... included a splendidly restrained Rodrigo’s works are being praised, performed composer’s fame and numerous exalted posts, it has permeated the movies (Brassed Off), performance with Narciso Yepes of Joaquín recorded and rediscovered as never before – at high honours, lectures, piano recitals, publications and television and radio advertising to an Rodrigo’s Guitar Concerto. This must surely be least in part due to the fame of the Concierto. and commissions followed in the ensuing decades. extraordinary degree. Today the internet is the only successful concerto written for the Rodrigo died in 1999 having a few years before swamped with performances of all kinds, with instrument. The beautiful balance of ideas While Rodrigo gave the world its first modern been raised to the Spanish nobility as Marqués on-line guitar tablatures enabling budding and harmonies, the sensitive atmosphere and masterpiece for guitar and orchestra, it was de los jardines de Aranjuez. guitarists to follow and learn the piece at their orchestration are an ever fresh delight. Andrès Segovia, as a performer, who kick-started own pace. the guitar’s entry onto the world stage. His Rarely has an avowedly classical piece of music, As with many classical piece which have assumed influence can hardly be underestimated, and and especially one written in the twentieth The work was first performed at the Palau de la international popular success, the concerto has the range of compositions edited by, or century, enjoyed such spectacular critical and Musica, Barcelona on 9 November 1940, with now and then been less appreciated by critics specifically composed for him is extensive especially popular success as has Rodrigo’s Regino Sainz de la Maza, the work’s dedicatee than by audiences. Certainly it avoids the and influential. Segovia was forced to leave Concierto de Aranjuez. Such is its exalted place as soloist and César Mendoza Lasalle conducting extremes of some twentieth-century music of Spain during the Spanish Civil War and in the popular imagination that it seems strange the Barcelona Philharmonic Orchestra. Many the period, but it is far from conservative. Its was thus not available to champion the to learn how young it is – a mere 70 or so years. press commentators immediately recognised melodies, idiom and textures spring from Concierto de Aranjuez. In fact he never played The concerto is to the guitar repertory what its importance to the country’s musical canon, Rodrigo’s deep knowledge and love of Spanish the work, although he claimed to like it. On Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto or Mendelssohn’s praising its fusion of classical music with culture, folklore and history and his distinctive being asked by Charles Ramirez why he had Violin Concerto are to the repertoire of their own distinctly Spanish influences. Six years later musical voice and deft individual handling of not played it, he commented that he felt some - 4 - - 5 - of the guitar part was not well written, being candles, we surmounted the difficulty. The understanding of Spain’s national instrument. suitable homage to the instrument for which too high to bring out the true sonority of the work played marvellously under the great This Ode (or Tribute) to the guitar is a substantial the composer helped create a new golden age. guitar. However, Rodrigo did write the Tres artist’s fingers, and the tenuous light lent an work in the manner of a sonata and demands piezas españolas and, more importantly, the archaic atmosphere, very fitting, above all a formidable technique from the performer. It © M Ross Fantasía para un gentilhombre specifically for the ‘dance of the torches’. seems to have been originally conceived as a for Segovia in 1954. Rodrigo’s wife, Victoria work for guitar and orchestra by the Italian Kamhi describes the genesis of the Fantasia: Gaspar Sanz was a seventeenth-century composer, Composer, Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, reflecting priest and guitarist, particularly renowned for facets of the guitar and, naturally, also of It was in 1951 that Segovia asked Joaquín for his three-volume pedagogical treatise on the Spain itself: nobility, church polyphony and, of a new concerto for guitar and chamber classical guitar, Instrucción de musica sobra course, the dance. Unfulfilled at his death, orchestra. In order to exchange ideas, he came la guitarra española. Rodrigo selected a Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s idea was proposed to one summer afternoon to our chalet in number of themes by Sanz, expanding them Rodrigo by the guitarist, and eventual Torrelodones and stayed to have supper ... into a 20-minute concerto for guitar and dedicatee, Angelo Gilardino. Rodrigo kept to After the triumph of Concierto de Aranjuez in orchestra, uniting Segovia and Sanz through the original plan and title, but decided against Paris, Joaquín felt no great desire to compose the centuries with the marriage of ancient including orchestral accompaniment or explicit another concerto, and he postponed the work.