RODRIGO Concierto de Aranjuez
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: Joaquín Rodrigo, Joaquín Malats, Lorenzo Palomo
Genre:
Orchestral
Label: Signum
Magazine Review Date: 06/2016
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 67
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: SIGCD444
Tracks:
Composition | Artist Credit |
---|---|
Andalusian Nocturnes |
Lorenzo Palomo, Composer
Christoph Denoth, Guitar Jesús López-Cobos, Conductor London Symphony Orchestra Lorenzo Palomo, Composer |
Concierto de Aranjuez |
Joaquín Rodrigo, Composer
Christoph Denoth, Guitar Jesús López-Cobos, Conductor Joaquín Rodrigo, Composer London Symphony Orchestra |
Serenata española |
Joaquín Malats, Composer
Christoph Denoth, Guitar Jesús López-Cobos, Conductor Joaquín Malats, Composer London Symphony Orchestra |
Composer or Director: Joaquín Rodrigo, Frank Martin, Leo Brouwer
Genre:
Orchestral
Label: Naxos
Magazine Review Date: 06/2016
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 67
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: 8 573542
Tracks:
Composition | Artist Credit |
---|---|
Concierto de Aranjuez |
Joaquín Rodrigo, Composer
Joaquín Rodrigo, Composer Miguel Trápaga, Guitar Óliver Díaz, Conductor Real Filharmonía de Galicia |
Guitare |
Frank Martin, Composer
Frank Martin, Composer Miguel Trápaga, Guitar |
Concierto de Benicàssim |
Leo Brouwer, Composer
Leo Brouwer, Composer Miguel Trápaga, Guitar Óliver Díaz, Conductor Real Filharmonía de Galicia |
Author: William Yeoman
Spanish composer Lorenzo Palomo’s suite for guitar and orchestra Nocturnos de Andalucía might use an orchestra more than twice the size of Rodrigo’s, but Palomo’s writing exhibits the same kind of elegant restraint. This magnificent tone-poem, with its lush, flamenco-hued evocations of shifting passions beneath the stars, thus balances rather than overwhelms Rodrigo’s chamber-like atmosphere – a genuine conversation, especially in the hands of the superb Swiss-born guitarist Christoph Denoth and the LSO under Jesús López Cobos.
Denoth’s own arrangement of Joaquín Malats’s tuneful, ever-popular Serenata española (actually originally an orchestral piece before being arranged for piano and then solo guitar) is closer to the Concierto de Aranjuez in its economy of means and elegant colouristic flourishes, and makes for a satisfying encore or pendant to the previous two works. Throughout, Denoth again shows himself to be a thoughtful musician of considerable taste and technical prowess, and his recording of the Palomo suffers not one jot by comparison with that of the work’s dedicatee, Pepé Romero.
The second recording under consideration sees the Concierto de Aranjuez in the company of Concierto de Benicàssim, the ninth of 11 guitar concertos by the prolific guitarist/composer Leo Brouwer. Just as interestingly, the other work featured is Guitare, Frank Martin’s brilliant orchestration of his solo guitar suite Quatre pièces brèves.
As a whole, this recording makes for a more rounded listening experience than the above. The works are so different, yet still inspired by the same modest, six-stringed instrument. Where the Brouwer – a thrilling work that uses an amplified guitar and extended percussion passages which contrast with more elegiac episodes – fuses Spanish and Afro-Cuban elements, the Martin exhibits a certain Swiss coolness through which sudden gusts of warmer winds blow. Rodrigo’s historicism and refinement of earthier elements is thus more pronounced, more appreciated, than it might be on other occasions.
Trápaga’s playing is perhaps less assured than Denoth’s but he is highly attuned to the different sound worlds of the Brouwer and the Rodrigo and, together with the Real Filharmonía de Galicia under Óliver Díaz, creates another kind of musical conversation that is vibrant, exciting and revealing in equal measure.
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