Rafael Aguirre Program

Mauro Giuliani: Grande Overture in A major, Op. 61

(1809, 8 minutes)

 

Mauro Giuliani (1781-1829) was one of the most important guitarists of the early nineteenth century, largely responsible for the acceptance of the guitar as a solo instrument. After studying guitar as well as cello and composition in Italy, he moved to Vienna in 1806. By the following year he was starting to publish his compositions. Soon he was known all over Europe, famous for his virtuosity on the guitar, and counting among his friends notables like Beethoven and Rossini – he was even part of the cello section at the premiere of Beethoven's Symphony No. 7. In 1819 he moved back to Italy, where he spent the rest of his life. Among his over 200 compositions are numerous pieces for the guitar, including three concertos, sonatas, sets of variations, and arrangements of famous operatic tunes of the day, notably his volumes of Rossiniana based on melodies by Gioacchino Rossini. As a eulogy written not long after his death said, “In his hands, the guitar became gifted with a power of expression at once pure, thrilling, and exquisite … In a word, he made the instrument sing.”

 

The Grande Overture, one of Giuliani's most-performed works, begins with a stately Andante sostenuto in the minor. A gentle ostinato bass note underlies its stately motion. After that short introduction comes the exciting Allegro maestoso, with its lively tunes, fast passagework, moments of almost operatic drama, and a couple of playful crescendos that evoke the world of Giuliani's friend Rossini.

 

Johann Sebastian Bach: Chaconne from Partita No. 2 in D minor, BWV 1004

(1720, 15 minutes)

 

Bach’s six Sonatas and Partitas are generally regarded as among the greatest music ever written for the violin. Probably written around 1720, although first conceived many years earlier, they exploit a dazzling range of tone colors, textures, and moods, frequently creating the illusion of two, three, even four simultaneous melodic lines. As one critic has written, “To the violinist they are a complete world of beauty, and a training ground whereon his powers may always be proved and tested.”

 

The fifth and final movement of the Partita No. 2, the Chaconne, is one of Bach’s greatest and most ambitious achievements, one that has been arranged for a number of instruments, including the guitar. Spanning 257 measures and taking over 15 minutes to perform, the Chaconne begins with a strongly marked four-measure chordal theme. This becomes the basis of a set of 64 variations that build in intensity and virtuosity. Two large outer sections in the minor frame a major-key central episode. Bach biographer Philipp Spitta vividly describes this movement: “From the grave majesty of the beginning to the 32nd notes which rush up and down like the very demons; from the tremulous arpeggios that hang almost motionless, like veiling clouds above a dark ravine ... to the devotional beauty of the D major section, where the evening sun sets in a peaceful valley: the spirit of the master urges the instrument to incredible utterances. At the end of the D major section it sounds like an organ, and sometimes a whole band of violins seem to be playing. This Chaconne is a triumph of spirit over matter such as even Bach never repeated in a more brilliant manner.”

 

Felix Mendelssohn: Barcarola veneziana, Op. 19 No. 6

(1829–30, 3 minutes)

 

Felix Mendelssohn produced his Lieder ohne Worte, or Songs Without Words – eight volumes containing six pieces each, and a handful of additional pieces – between 1829 and 1845. These miniatures served the increasing market for domestic musical performance. Many middle-class families now had a piano in the home, and were on the lookout for short, attractive pieces of moderate difficulty to play. The title Song Without Words may well have come from Mendelssohn himself: in an 1828 letter, Fanny Mendelssohn wrote “My birthday was celebrated very nicely ... Felix has given me a 'song without words' for my album (he has lately written several beautiful ones).”

 

The first volume, Op. 19, was composed over 1829 and 1830 and published in London in 1832. The last of the six pieces in that set is one of three pieces Mendelssohn called Venetianisches Gondellied, or Venetian Gondola Song (the others come from the Op. 30 and 62 sets of Songs Without Words). They are also sometimes called Barcarola veneziana, in reference to the barcarolle, a traditional folk song sung by Venetian gondoliers. Its 6/8 meter evokes the lapping of the water and the strokes of the gondolier's oars. Mendelssohn's Op. 19 No. 6, in G minor, floats gently, with melancholy melodies sounding over a regular, swaying rhythm.

 

Tomás Múgica: Danza

(1940s?, 4 minutes)

 

Tomás Múgica (1883-1963) was a Basque composer, teacher, and pianist. Born in Spain, he started his musical studies in his hometown while also founding a band called El Diapasón. Studies continued in Barcelona and Madrid, and later at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels. With Europe in crisis during World War I, Múgica made the decision to relocate to Uruguay. After working at several conservatories, in 1942 he became a teacher at the National Conservatory of Music in Montevideo, where he gave lessons in harmony, counterpoint, and composition. Then in 1944, he moved to Tacuarembó, where he assumed the direction of the city's Municipal Conservatory of Music. As a composer he produced, along with the present Danza, several string quartets and other orchestral and chamber music as well as works for solo organ, piano, and guitar, many of which reflect his Basque heritage.

 

Agustín Barrios: La Catedral

(1921/1938, 8 minutes)

 

Agustín Barrios (1885-1944) showed an interest in the guitar from an early age, and became one of the youngest college students in Paraguayan history when he entered the Colegio Nacional de Asunción at fifteen. After leaving the Colegio, he dedicated himself to composing and presenting solo guitar concerts, traveling throughout South and Central America. He became legendary for his virtuoso performances, and he was one of the first guitarists to make recordings, starting around 1910. After his first visit to the United States in the late 1930s, Barrios moved to El Salvador, where he took a position at the National Conservatory of Music and Declamation. Guitarist John Williams called Barrios “the greatest guitarist/composer of any time.” Just recently, he was the subject of a special on PBS. Barrios: Chopin of the Guitar. Many of his 300 or so compositions are based on folk songs of South and Central America.

 

La Catedral (The Cathedral) is regarded as one of Barrios's masterpieces. In writing it, he was inspired by the huge Cathedral of Montevideo and by the music of Johann Sebastian Bach. The second and third movements of this suite were written in 1921 in Montevideo, while Barrios was sick and staying at a hotel near the Cathedral. Barrios himself gave the music its premiere that same year, and recorded it in 1928. Ten years later, in 1938, he revisited the work while in Havana, and added the first movement, premiering the new three-movement version the following year.

 

The first movement, Preludio saudade, evokes the nostalgic feelings of a person about to enter the cathedral. Possibly inspired by Barrios's emotions on the death and funeral of his wife, as well as a concert of Bach's organ music he'd recently heard, this melancholic movement includes anticipations of the following two sections. In the second movement, Andante religioso, the individual moves into the cathedral and experiences its vast interior and the ringing of bells. The tempo picks up for the third movement, Allegro solemne, as the individual, having had their spiritual experience within the cathedral, rejoins the noise and bustle of the outside world.

 

Frédéric Chopin: Prélude in D-flat major, Op. 28 No. 15 “Raindrop”

(1838-39, 5 minutes)

 

The 24 Préludes were published in 1839, right after Chopin had returned from a winter trip to the island of Majorca with writer George Sand, with whom he had started a relationship months before. The pieces cover each of the major and minor keys, starting with C major and its relative minor A minor and working their way through the circle of fifths. Each was given an illustrative title by conductor-pianist Hans von Bülow, although the titles weren't Chopin's idea and are not uniformly used.

 

While most of the Préludes are just a minute or two in length, the major exception, at over five minutes, is the famous No. 15, the “Raindrop.” One of its main features is its repeating A-flat, which appears throughout the piece and sounds like raindrops to many listeners. Structurally, the piece is in ABA form. Starting with a calm theme in D-flat major, the music soon moves to a new, stormy episode in C-sharp minor, with that tolling A-flat (or G-sharp) continuing and becoming more ominous. But the mood calms again as the opening music returns, as one commentator puts it, “with the smiling freshness of dear, familiar nature.”

 

Paco de Lucía: Reflejo de Luna (Granaina)

(1973, 4 minutes)

 

Paco de Lucia: Guajiras de Lucía

(1969, 4 minutes)

 

Paco de Lucía (1947-2014) had a career that stretched over seven decades. He was born in southern Spain as Francisco Sánchez Gómez. His father and two of his brothers were also flamenco performers. From an early age, the young musician practiced the guitar up to twelve hours a day. He played his first public performance at age eleven, and made his first recording with his brother at fourteen. Soon he was touring with the flamenco troupe of dancer José Greco, and starting to write his own music. He continued touring and making recordings, while also starting to incorporate jazz influences in his music, working with musicians like John McLaughlin, Al Di Meola, and Chick Corea. As he once put it, “What I have tried to do is have a hand holding onto tradition and the other scratching, digging in other places, trying to find new things I can bring into flamenco.”

 

De Lucía was considered by many to be the world's greatest flamenco guitarist. His style, sometimes called nuevo flamenco, incorporated fast picados (a picking technique) and rasgueados (strumming) heard alongside more restrained, sensitive playing and extended chords reminiscent of jazz.

 

His 1973 album Fuente y Caudal, regarded as one of his best, includes the selection Reflejo de Luna (Granaina). It's an example of the Granaína style from Granada, which tends to feature slower tempos, albeit with frequent fast runs and arpeggios, and is usually only sung or played as a guitar solo. Guajiras de Lucía originally appeared on de Lucia's second album, Fantasía flamenca de Paco de Lucía (1969). The guajiras is a flamenco guitar style that originated in Cuba. Typically in a major key and employing a twelve-beat rhythm, it can be quite intricate and technically challenging.

 

Luiz Bonfá: Passeio no Rio

(c. 1960, 3 minutes)

 

Born in Rio de Janeiro, Luiz Bonfá (1922-2001) started guitar lessons at age eleven. By his twenties, he was starting to make a name for himself, performing on Brazilian radio and in a number of groups. He was also starting to write songs, his first big hit coming in 1957. Around that time he was introduced to Antônio Carlos Jobim and Vinicius de Moraes, the leading songwriting team in the world of bossa nova, a style that virtually exploded on the scene in the late 1950s. Bonfá collaborated with Jobim on the music for the famous film Black Orpheus (1959), a retelling of the Orpheus and Eurydice story set in Rio de Janeiro during Carnaval. Bonfá went on to a long career as a guitarist and composer, producing over sixty albums, collaborating with musicians like Frank Sinatra, Quincy Jones, and Stan Getz, and performing all over the world. His Passeio no Rio is a lively and joyous dance, with some surprising harmonic changes. The highly rhythmic guitar playing also features rich harmonizations of the melodic line, essentially combining the roles of lead and rhythm guitar.

 

Pedro Elías Gutiérrez: Alma Llanera

(1914, 3 minutes)

 

Pedro Elías Gutiérrez (1870-1954) was a Venezuelan composer, arranger, multi-instrumentalist, and conductor. Having studied, starting at age fifteen, at the Academy of Music of the National Institute of Fine Arts of Caracas, Gutiérrez wrote his first composition, a march, at sixteen. By nineteen he composed his first symphony. He later led the Orquesta Caraqueña, a light music band based in Caracas. For forty-four years, from 1903 to 1946, he also led the Caracas Martial Band, where he had started as a double bass player in 1901. He was mainly known for his zarzuelas, that distinctive form of musical theater, Spanish in origin, that combines sung and spoken parts.

 

One of Gutiérrez's zarzuelas, Alma Llanera (Soul of the Plains), was the source of the song of the same name. The song became famous, and has come to be thought of as the unofficial second national anthem of Venezuela. Its title refers to the Llaneros, Venezuelan herders who have become part of the country's folklore. The song – a joropo, a Venezuelan dance – was inspired by two waltzes, Marisela by Venezuelan composer Sebastian Díaz Peña, and Mita by Curaçaon composer Jan Gerard Palm.

 

Agustín Lara: Granada

(1932, 4 minutes)

 

Ángel Agustín María Carlos Fausto Mariano Alfonso del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús Lara y Aguirre del Pino, otherwise known as Agustín Lara, lived from 1897 to 1970 and was one of the most popular songwriters of his era. Lara was brought up in a Mexico City hospice run by his aunt. There, he had his first contact with music. He worked in cabarets for a time, learned to play the piano in a variety of musical styles, and later became composer and accompanist for tenor Juan Arvizu, while also occasionally acting and writing songs for film. He also became famous as a radio personality in Mexico. Gradually, his songs, eventually numbering over 700, started to become popular as he performed throughout Mexico, the United States, South America, and Spain. Lara was a colorful figure, who married five times, had a number of affairs, and was known for a large scar on his face, the result of an attack by a jealous lover.

 

Perhaps his most famous wife was María Félix, a star of Mexican cinema. Lara wrote some of his best-known songs for her, including Granada. Taking as its subject the city of the same name – “Granada, I'm falling under your spell” – Granada became famous. It was recorded by dozens of singers, from Plácido Domingo and Frankie Laine to Mario Lanza and Frank Sinatra. Some will also remember the performance by Desi Arnaz, as Ricky Ricardo, in the legendary television show I Love Lucy. The song's theatrical gestures and memorable tune make it a great showpiece for the guitar.

 

Program notes by Chris Morrison