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.”

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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