专辑简介

The versatility of the classical guitar is indeed one of its outstanding characteristics. The instrument has the capability of integrating the music of many eras and styles within a single recital or recording without incongruity. The result, as represented in this selection, is a fascinating compound of romanticism, modernism, and the expressive sensibilities of contemporary composers in which variety of texture is paramount and yet where freshness of vision and imagination becomes evident in every piece.The vividly romantic compositions of the Paraguayan guitarist, Agustín Barrios Mangoré, are now an essential part of the repertoire. The revival of interest in his work was achieved in the main by the advocacy of John Williams, whose many performances during the 1970s of the music of this hitherto neglected composer drew wide attention to the sheer beauty of Barrios’s art and stimulated considerable research. Un Sueño en la Floresta (Dream in the Glade), one of the most sublime of the melodic pieces of Barrios, is a virtuosic tremolo study in which a plaintive theme is woven about a superbly imaginative bass accompaniment. As Barrios himself poetically expressed it, “from the depths of the mysterious box there emerges a marvellous symphony of all the virgin voices of our America”.Karel Arnoldus Craeyvanger, born in Utrecht, Holland, was (according to the guitar historian Philip J. Bone) a virtuoso on both guitar and violin who appeared in concerts with great success in his native land. He became a director of various important music societies and in 1852 was conductor of the musical festival of Cleves and that of Utrecht in the following year. The score of his Introduction and Variations on a theme from the opera, Der Freischütz, Op. 3, is from the Royal Library in the Hague, where there are also manuscripts of his three Nocturnes for guitar, three Cantica for choir and organ, some songs with piano accompaniment, and a march for orchestra. Der Freischütz (The Free-shooter) by Carl Maria von Weber (1786–1826), was first produced at the Schauspielhaus in Berlin in June 1821. The theme used by Craeyvanger is from the Aria, Leise, leise, fromme Weise (Softly sighing, day is dying) sung by Agathe, whose hand in marriage is sought by the hero, Max. In this scene, Agathe opens the window of her room and as the moonlight floods in, she intones this tender prayer. After a recitative, she sees her lover approaching and launches into an ecstatic melody, which is one of the best known tunes of all opera. The variation form was very popular among nineteenth-century guitarists, such as Sor and Giuliani, and here a more unfamiliar composer demonstrates in his own way the variety and expressiveness of the structure in the context of the guitar.The vast musical output of Heitor Villa-Lobos covers a huge canvas of symphonies, concertos, choral and chamber music, as well as many instrumental works. Through his art the vitality of Brazilian culture found full twentieth-century expression. Yet it is his guitar music which still attracts fervent popularity. His deep understanding of the instrument enabled the composer to write in a truly distinctive personal style creating beautiful melodies as well as the effects of tonal colours of open strings against fretted notes to develop fascinating patterns of shifting chords. Twelve Etudes, written in Paris in the late 1920s and dedicated to Andrés Segovia, are a landmark in twentieth-century guitar development, though they were not published until the 1950s. Segovia commented that these studies ‘consist of formulas of surprising efficiency for the technical development of each hand, and at the same time have a ‘disinterested’ musical beauty, without an educational aim, but with a permanent aesthetic value as concert piece…Villa-Lobos has made a gift to the guitar’s history of the fruits of his talent as vigorous and delightful as that of Scarlatti and Chopin’. Etude No.7 has been described by Turibio Santos, the great Brazilian guitarist, as ‘a study in virtuosity par excellence’. The study has four sections beginning with an episode of rapid descending scale passages, followed by a highly expressive melody and accompanying arpeggio section of poetic intensity. After the reprise of the first section, rhythmic parallel chords concluded by complex trills propel the composition towards a dramatic ending. Etude No. 9 is an exercise in arpeggio patterns and slurs in Brazilian mood, evoking the countryside and the nostalgic atmosphere of the cavaquinho or folk guitar. Heitor Villa-Lobos’s Concerto for guitar and small orchestra was given its first performance on 6 February 1959, in Houston, Texas, conducted by the composer. The concerto, commissioned by Andrés Segovia, was begun in 1951 with the intended title of Fantaisie concertante but disappointed the guitarist because it lacked a cadenza. Segovia refused to play the work for several years, his annoyance coming to a climax when he heard Villa-Lobos’s Harp Concerto, dedicated to Nicanor Zabaleta, complete with a magnificent cadenza. The composer was then compelled, if he wanted his guitar concerto to reach the concert hall, to provide a cadenza between the second and third movements and re-title the work Concerto. John Duarte commented how ‘the cadenza muses at length over the thematic material of the first two movements and raises the curtain on the final, brilliantly orchestrated kaleidoscope’. But despite this, the cadenza makes in itself a satisfying and exciting solo in which many of Villa-Lobos’s most endearing musical characteristics, in particular a full awareness of his Brazilian identity, are foremost. Etude No. 12 is a study of glissando applied throughout the fingerboard to parallel chords. A middle contrasting episode presents an exciting repeated bass effect before the return of the first section. This is acknowledged as one of the most technically challenging of the twelve studies, requiring pinpoint precision and perfect control to achieve the necessary articulation.Denis Gougeon, composer and teacher, born in Granby, Quebec, has written more than eighty compositions including orchestral works, chamber music, film scores, opera, ballet, and pieces for solo instruments and voice. He learned to play the guitar in his teens, studied composition with André Prévost and Serge Garant, and was awarded higher degrees at the Université de Montréal. From 1984–1988 he taught composition at McGill University. In 1989 he became the first composer-in-residence of the Montréal Symphony Orchestra, holding that post until 1992. Since 2001 Denis Gougeon has been a member of the music faculty at the Université de Montréal, and has won a number of prestigious competition prizes in Canada and internationally. Denis Gougeon has supplied the following note for his Lamento-Scherzo: Commissioned by the late Paul Gerrits as the set piece for the 2010 Guitar Foundation of America Competition, Lamento-Scherzo is in two parts. The Lamento is a simple melody where the musician has to bring much expression into the cantabile. One of the difficulties comes from its very fragile aspect and its denuded accompaniment. The middle section acts like distant memories, a commentary before returning to the main theme slightly varied. The Scherzo is of course more playful in its character with rapid scales, displaced accents, and contrasting sections.Giulio Regondi was an infant prodigy of the guitar who matured into an eminent artist and esteemed composer of poetic but challenging works. Born in the French city of Lyon, Regondi made his début in Paris by the age of seven, becoming known as ‘The Infant Paganini’. In 1831 he arrived with his father in London, which was to be his home for the rest of his life. Unfortunately, in a somewhat mysterious episode, his father absconded with his son’s earnings, leaving the boy dependent on the good will of strangers. In his mature years, however, Regondi continued