Tilman Hoppstock FERNANDO SOR Werke für Gitarre

 

WERKE FÜR GITARRE

 

Marc Regnier ZAMBRA!

Since its outset at the turn of the 19th century, the six-string guitar has been an inseparable part of Spain's musical life. Although Italy and France were also prolific centers of performers, composers and builders during the early decades of the century, Spain later became the instrument's iconic country. Guitarists started accompanying flamenco singers, making the guitar an intrinsic part of the art form and positioning it as Spain's national instrument. Many concert guitarists --most notably Julián Arcas-- included it in their performances and compositions. Both flamenco and classical guitars increased their volume, quality of sound, and overall possibilities with the designs by luthier Antonio de Torres, whose construction standards have remained unchanged to this day. A long list of referents would ensue in later generations, including Francisco Tárrega, Miguel Llobet, Emilio Pujol and Andrés Segovia. Moreover, both Spanish and foreign composers evoked the sound of the guitar and the forms associated with it as an immediate reference to the Mediterranean country.

José Miguel Moreno LA GUITARRA ESPAÑOLA

There is no question of José Miguel Moreno being anything other than the leading Spanish specialist in historic plucked string instruments. As a concert performer, researcher, builder and collector of instruments and co-founder of the Glossa label, Moreno has, over the last thirty years, been the guiding beacon for a number of succeeding generations of guitarists and lutenists the world over. Glossa was the label for which he recorded two of his now legendary programmes, La Guitarra Española (1536-1836) and La Guitarra Española (1818-1918). These had previously been deleted but we are now bringing them back as a doubledisc set.
Moreno plays a range of instruments made either by Lourdes Uncilla or by himself in order to infuse with a new vitality the fundamental repertories in the history of the guitar as bequeathed by the vihuelists Narváez, Milán and Mudarra, then later composed by figures such as Francisco Guerau, Santiago de Murcia and Gaspar Sanz, and subsequently through the romantic scores of Fernando Sor and Johann Kaspar Mertz. Tárrega and Llobet, the great masters of post-Romanticism, close this survey striding with infinite musicality across the most representative compositions of four centuries of the Spanish guitar.
This special edition marks, as well, the departure point of a new process of collaboration between José Miguel Moreno and the label which he helped to create, with brand new recordings being planned, which will appear from the autumn of this year onwards.

Marta Almajano / José Miguel Moreno LAS MUJERES Y CUERDAS

The album title is that of the final song, Sor’s Las mujeres y cuerdas, with its caveat that both women and strings need ‘tuning’ – but carefully. The cover is adorned with Madrazo’s painting (1853) of the Countess of Vilches (seated in the luxurious surroundings appropriate to her rank), whose demeanour suggests that she may be dreaming of romantic love, or perhaps listening to musical expressions of it. The gentle guitar was at that time popular as an accompanying instrument in the home or salon, incapable of supporting anything vulgar or excessive; the publishing of guitar-accompanied songs was a flourishing trade. The song by Martin y Soler, a composer of opera buffa, was published with the 

option of guitar or keyboard; all the others were composed or arranged by guitarists. Giuliani, the darling of the Viennese salons, exercised his (Italian) gift of melody in responding generously to the market, whilst Sor worked as a singing teacher during his sojourn in London, from which time the songs in this recording (and many others) date.
These graceful and sometimes coquettish songs of the joys, frustrations and pains of love are punctuated by suitably day-dreaming guitar solos. Marta Almajano sings them beguilingly though not without sacrificing consonants to beauty of tone, but the texts are printed in the substantial booklet, as are a number of charming reproductions of paintings. Moreno’s contribution is excellent in all respects. This well-recorded and lavishly produced album should appeal to all who care to share the dreams of the Countess of Vilches, in whatever surroundings they may find themselves.' (John Duarte / Gramophone)