At the beginning of the 20th century, there was a joke spreading in Paris, a prank that Spanish people did not like at all. It was said that the best Spanish composers were French. The gossip, however, had some substance. In fact, in those years it was difficult to find anything more Spanish than the Andalusian dances of Bizet's Carmen, or Chabrier's rhapsody España, or even Ravel's Bolero. So when Joaquín Rodrigo arrived in Paris in 1927 to study composition with Paul Dukas, he had to redouble his commitment to music to put an end to such talk.
After finishing his studies, Rodrigo returned to Spain to devote himself entirely to composition. But fame was slow in coming. In 1940 he premiered in Barcelona the work that would give him universal recognition, the Concierto de Aranjuez for guitar and orchestra, a work that definitively affirmed his musical personality. His contribution to the incorporation of the guitar as a concert instrument is invaluable: the Fantasía para un Gentilhombre, of 1954, composed on themes by the baroque composer Gaspar Sanz, crowned what the Concierto de Aranjuez had begun.
In 1967, the already internationally acclaimed musician received a request from a famous quartet of Spanish guitarists, Los Romeros (Celedonio, the father, and three sons). On August 1 of the following year, a poetic evocation of Andalusia saw the light of day.
The Concierto Andaluz for four guitars and orchestra premiered at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles with the collaboration of the famous quartet as soloists, accompanied by the city's Philharmonic. The sones, the color, and the Hispanic rhythms were back on stage, with honors.
Concierto Andaluz
The piece is in three movements, blending impressionistic Spanish music with baroque touches. A familiar, lively opening movement, bolero time, evokes popular dances, with strings and guitars imitating castanet percussion. It is followed by a high-flying, lyrical adagio, comparable to a similar movement in the Concierto de Aranjuez. The work closes with a vibrant and vigorous allegretto.
00:19 Tempo de Bolero
09:09 Adagio-Allegro-Adagio
19:10 Allegretto-Allegro-Allegretto
The performance is by instrumentalists Nick and David Kvaratskhelia, Peter Ernst and Christopher Brandt, accompanied by the Merck Philharmonic Orchestra, which owes its name to ancestral pharmaceutical entrepreneurs, the Merck family, since the seventeenth century. Wolfgang Heinzel conducts.
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