Fernando Sor and the guitar: beyond six strings

Posted by Josep Dolcet on May 6, 2011  |  Leave a comment

As part of the European tour of the musicianand researcher John Doan, associate professor at the Willamette University in Salem (Oregon, USA), the Sor Society of Barcelona (SSB) has organised, in conjunction with the Barcelona Museum of Music, a seminar (conference and recital) on Fernando Sor and his decisive role in the evolution of the guitar and other plucked string instruments.

The Catalan Fernando Sor (Barcelona 1778 – Paris 1839), besides being one of the leading composers in Spain during the transitional period between Classicism and Romanticism, was the musician who, thanks to his works and performances, raised the guitar to the category of concert instrument in the “cultured” world of international music. What is less known is that Sor also played a decisive role in the technical development of the guitar, through his contacts with the most important luthiers of his epoch.

In addition, Sor also composed for an instrument invented at that time: the harpolyre (a guitar with three necks and 21 strings). After the conference we will be able to listen to these pieces for the first time in Europe after almost a century of neglect, thanks to the arrangements made by John Doan.

A well known figure on the Celtic music scene today, John Doan will also play some pieces on the harp guitar, his usual instrument.
For further information on the session at the Museum of Music >

“La guitarra soñada” by Javier Riba presented in Madrid and Barcelona

Posted by Leticia Martin on April 15, 2009  |  Leave a comment

In the year of Albéniz’s centenary (1860-1909), Javier Riba, following the best Spanish guitar tradition (Miquel Llobet, Francesc Tárrega), has realised some brilliant versions of different works by the maestro from Camprodon, which are now being presented in concert in Madrid and Barcelona.

The opportunity to listen to Javier Riba live in Madrid is on 22 April, as part of the concert programme organised by the Sociedad Española de la Guitarra, at the Centro Cultural Conde Duque del Ayuntamiento de Madrid, and he can be heard in Barcelona on 23 May, as part of the Festival de Guitarra de Barcelona , in the Iglesia de San Felipe Neri.

The CD “La guitarra soñada” by Javier Riba is a Tritó production.

Albéniz for guitar

Posted by Leticia Martin on December 27, 2008  |  2 Comments

Isaac Albéniz is one of the most emblematic composers of Spanish music of all time and although he never wrote for guitar his music almost immediately aroused the interest of guitarists. The first adaptations for guitar of Albéniz’s music are practically contemporary to the original versions for piano, although there is no doubt that the best known are those realised by Andrés Segovia.

Javier Riba now presents adaptations of some of Albéniz’s masterworks, pieces that have been included in the CD “La guitarra soñada”, which is now being released for the enjoyment of all guitar lovers.

Evocación

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El puerto

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Above all, the guitarist has aimed to respect the style and resources of the guitar of the epoch and the spirit of Albeniz’s piano music.

For the time being, the published works are the following: Evocación and El puerto.

You can download a sample on continuation…

El Puerto

Evocación

Albéniz for guitar, by Javier Riba

Posted by Marcel Soleda on November 17, 2008  |  Leave a comment

Although Isaac Albéniz did not compose for the guitar, the transcriptions for this instrument of his music constitute an important oeuvre and were numerous even during the composer’s lifetime. Francisco Tárrega’s transcriptions for performers like Andrés Segovia have contributed to the renown of Albéniz’s piano works.

Some of Tárrega’s transcriptions are included on the recording La guitarra soñada, along with others by the guitarist Javier Riba, who on this CD offers an elegant and solid performance backed by a profound grasp of Albéniz and the guitar idiom. Included on the CD is a selection of some of the best-known works by the Catalan composer: Iberia, Suite Española, España and Pavana.

This is what Walter Aaron Clark, an Albéniz scholar, has to say about the quality of these transcriptions: “But I had always felt that a solo guitarist could not do justice to this music. The guitar virtuoso Javier Riba, an artist of the first order, has proved the falseness of that claim, for which we should all be grateful.”

Fernando Sor, Overtures and Symphonies

Posted by Marcel Soleda on November 17, 2008  |  Leave a comment

Fernando Sor (Barcelona, 1778 – Paris, 1839) was undoubtedly one of the most internationally renowned Spanish composers. Known mainly for his guitar music, Sor’s orchestral works have often been ignored. In recent years, studies by several musicologists have re-established his reputation as a composer of orchestral, ballet and other works, and as one of the leading composers in Spanish Classicism and pre-Romanticism.

Tritó has spent years restoring some of these scores and the Cadaqués Orchestra, under the direction of Sir Neville Marriner, has now recorded a selection. This is the first CD devoted entirely to Sor’s orchestral works, as well as the first recording of some of the works included.

The CD, which we hope will give Sor the respect he deserves as a composer of orchestral works, features the following: the overtures to the ballets Hercule et Omphale, Alphonse et Leonora and Cendrillon, and the melodrama La Elvira portuguesa, and his Symphonies No. 1 in C major, No. 2 in E flat major and No. 3 in F major.

Chamber music from the 18th century

Posted by Marcel Soleda on November 7, 2008  |  2 Comments

Volume 7 of the Collection “Compositors valencians” has been released. It is published by Tritó in conjunction with the Generalitat Valenciana and contains the Complete repertoire of chamber music composed by the brothers Antonio and Joaquín Nicolás Ximénez Brufal, in an edition prepared by the Valencian musicologist Miguel Ángel Picó Pascual.

This researcher has reconstructed the lives and historical and family background of these two composers and violinists who practised their profession at the collegiate church of Alicante and in the courts and concert halls of Madrid, London and Paris, like the other musicians in their family.

The edition contains twelve works, with score and parts. The six sonatas for violin and basso continuo by Nicolás Ximénez, composed totally in the Galante and Rococo style typical of the post-Baroque period, were first published in London in 1772. On the other hand, the sonatas and trios by his brother, published in Paris in 1789, are totally in the international style of Classicism.

It should be mentioned that the trios in Opus 1 by Antonio Ximénez are for guitar, violin and bass (cello). One would expect these pieces to be well received by guitarists, on the look out for the scarce repertoire of chamber music for guitar.

Sonata I in G

Javier Riba plays El puerto, by Albéniz

Posted by Marcel Soleda on November 4, 2008  |  1 Comment

The guitarist Javier Riba plays El puerto from the Suite Iberia (original for piano)  by Isaac Albéniz in his own guitar arrangement. More of these transcriptions can be listened in his recent recording, “La guitarra soñada”. These transcriptions are being prepared today and will be available the next December.

Isaac Albéniz: La guitarra soñada

Posted by Marcel Soleda on November 4, 2008  |  4 Comments

The commemoration in 2009 of the centenary of the death of Isaac Albéniz will be a great opportunity to review the work of one of greatest Spanish music geniuses of all time.

In this respect, for the first time we are able to listen to the transcription for solo guitar of some parts of Iberia, one of the most important piano masterpieces of European music.

The Cordovan guitarist Javier Riba offers us the world debut of the arrangements of Evocación, El puerto and Almería, altogether in the tradition initiated by the maestros Francesc Tàrrega and Miquel Llobet.

In addition to Ibèria, the recording includes Capricho catalán, Preludio and Tango (España), the parts Cuba and Granada from the Suite española, all of them arranged by Riba himself, and the already classic transcriptions by Tàrrega and Llobet of the Pavana and the Serenata española.

It is worth mentioning the sleeve notes, written by the prestigious musicologist specialised in Albéniz, Walter Clark, where he draws attention to the fact that Albéniz’s piano works have become one of the central parts of the guitar repertory par excellence.

1. Evocación

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2. El puerto

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3. Granada

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Sonata No.2

Posted by Marcel Soleda on July 29, 2008  |  Leave a comment

The pianist and composer Manuel Garcia Morante is known for his interpretations of Catalan and Spanish lied, especially for his edition of Enric Granados’ songs.

Garcia Morante’s newest score for Tritó is Sonata No. 2 for guitar. The piece was premiered by the by the well-known Barcelona guitarist Àlex Garrobé on 17 July 2007 at the 10th Villa de Petrer International Guitar Week.

Download a sample…

Sonata núm.2

Music for guitar by Ramon Carnicer

Posted by Redacción on May 19, 2008  |  Leave a comment

The best known work by Ramon Carnicer (1789-1855) is undoubtedly the overture composed for the Barcelona premiere of Il barbiere di Siviglia in 1818. This orchestral work was soon transcribed for various instrumental combinations, of which is often cited the guitar version he did for his brother Miquel Carnicer.

Now all three known versions for guitar, from different periods of the 19th century, are available from the Tritó catalogue. The first was composed in 1819 – the year after the original work – by Sebastià Pelegrí, and the last, by Tomás Damas, is from 1872. In between the two falls the anonymous version published in Madrid between 1831 and 1859, in all likelihood the lost version for Miquel Carnicer.

This triple facsimile edition is complemented by a new version by the guitarist Josep Maria Mangado based directly on the orchestral score while taking into account the specific characteristics of the period arrangements. With publications such these, Tritó seeks to continue in its efforts to revive forgotten or unknown pieces from the Catalan and Spanish guitar repertoire.