A Touch of Spain

Ferdinando Carulli
Trio Concertante Op 103 Nr 2

Carulli began his musical studies at an early age, first learning the cello, and later teaching himself the guitar. There is virtually no information about his life in Italy, but it is known that he settled in Paris in 1808 and stayed for many years. There, he quickly became very successful and was considered the most famous concert guitarist and the most sought-after teacher teacher in Paris.

However the quality of Carulli’s compositions is rather erratic. As well as tasteful, well proportioned works, there are many trivial, simple pieces, although especially in the field of chamber music he wrote repertoire of true value. The three Trio Concertanti are the only ones Carulli wrote for the combination of violin, viola and guitar, as he usually preferred flute, violin and guitar.

Astor Piazolla
Tango ‘Continental Café 1930’ for violin and guitar
Oblivion Milonga for violin, viola , guitar

Of Italian parentage, Piazolla was born in Argentina in 1921, the family later moving to New York. For his ninth birthday, he was given a bandoneon (button accordion) and as a youngster his musical world was heavily influenced by the jazz greats of the era such as Duke Ellington and Cab Calloway. When Astor was only sixteen he moved to Buenos Aires and spent many years studying (with Ginastera amongst others), playing in his own bands, and composing to develop his own style. He finally found reknown in the 1960’s after being encouraged by Nadia Boulanger, and his popularity has grown worldwide ever since. His name is now virtually inseparable from the word ‘tango’, which forms the basis of most of his compositions. He made the tango swing with new life, borrowing from jazz, experimenting with bold harmonies, and spicing it with a touch of classical style.

The style of tango represented by Continental Café 1930 comes from a time when people preferred to listen to the tango rather than dance to it. The tempos are slower and the mood is romantic and melancholy.

The Oblivion Milonga draws its langorous mood from the slow tempo and swaying rhythm typical of a milonga, which is the term for the popular music of the pampas (plains).

Antonio Bartolomeo Bruni
Concertante Duo op. 25 no. 5 for violin and viola

Bruni was born in Cuneo, Italy, and after studying violin and composition in his native land, he moved to Paris, where it is said he dazzled audiences with his talents, both as a performer and composer. Bruni was apparently a supporter of the Revolution, which placed him in a good position to receive high-class job offers. Consequently he became conductor of the Opera Italienne on its return to Paris in 1801. He took the opportunity to place his own operatic works in the public arena and was rewarded with much success. However, today he is best remembered for his many violin and viola duets and a pedagogical viola method.

Isaac Albéniz
Asturias for solo guitar
From Suite Española op. 47, transc. for guitar by F. Tárrega

Albéniz, the Spanish pianist and composer, was a child prodigy. At the age of seven, Isaac toured with his father and sister Clementine throughout Northern Spain. Later he toured the world as a teenager independently, studied in Brussels, and reached the peak of his pianistic career around 1890 when he performed concert tours in Europe. His early compositions include many piano works in European salon style (eg in the fashion of Chopin or Liszt), but in the late 1880s a strong Spanish influence becomes evident in his music. The Suite Española op. 47, of which Asturias is the fifth movement, is famous in the repertoire of the classical guitar. It was originally composed for piano and later transcribed for guitar by Francisco Tárrega. Many of Albéniz’s other piano works were transcribed by Tárrega and it is said that Albéniz himself preferred the guitar transcriptions to the originals.

Three Spanish pieces for viola and guitar:
Enrique Granados
(originally songs for voice/piano, transcribed for voice/guitar)
La Maja Dolorosa No. 1 - The Sad Woman
El Majo Discreto - The Discrete Man

Graciano Tarragó
Playera

Granados
One of Spain’s greatest composers, Granados was also famous during his lifetime as a pianist. In Paris he came into contact with many important French composers and established a special relationship with Saint-Saëns. Returning to Barcelona in 1889, he continued to perform and compose, giving the first performance of Grieg’s piano concerto and playing many chamber music concerts with close friends such as Casals and Thibaud. He also established the Granados Academy to further the art of piano playing as he practiced it. A great part of Granados’ compositions are works for solo piano, and songs for voice and piano, such as the two tonadillas performed tonight. At least one of the tonadillas was transcribed for voice and guitar by José de Azpiazu. Granados’ life was tragically shortened when he and his wife were drowned after their ship the ‘Sussex’ was torpedoed in the English Channel during World War I.

Tarragó -
Graciano Tarragó was an eminent Spanish classical guitarist who was a much sought-after teacher and performer in Barcelona during the middle years of the 20th Century. He has edited several volumes of guitar music, as well as composing, transcribing, and arranging works, especially for voice and guitar. Tarragó has recorded with the famous Spanish singer Victoria de los Angeles.

Ludwig van Beethoven
Serenade op. 8 in D major for violin, viola, and guitar
(arr. Wenceslaus Matiegka 1773-1830 )

Adagio - Allegro scherzoso – Adagio / Andante quasi allegretto / Polonaise

The Serenade op. 8, originally for violin, viola, and cello, was first published in 1797 and became very popular. There were many arrangements made of the work even in Beethoven’s lifetime, and this particular one for violin, viola, and guitar, was completed in 1807 by Wenceslaus Matiegka, a fashionable teacher of piano and guitar in Vienna.

In Matiegka’s arrangement, the guitar is given material to play from all three instruments of the original version. The viola plays most of the melodic passages previously played by the cello and the violin plays its original part with few exceptions.