Every Saturday and Wednesday evening at 7, Classical 101 presents Fretworks for music of the classical guitar. On the program this week, I'll have internationally renowned Chinese guitarist Xuefei Yang's performance of Francisco Tarrega's Variations on the Carnival of Venice. This light-hearted showpiece by the great Spanish guitarist-composer explores the guitar's virtuosic potential for dazzling effects--not to mention testing the ability of the guitarist.
To vary the instrumentation a bit this week, I'll also have the Concerto for Two Mandolins in G by Antonio Vivaldi. This fine piece by the great Italian Baroque composer is given great advocacy by Ugo Orlandi and Dorina Frati as solists with I Solisti Veneti conducted by Claudio Scimone.
Something of a rarity to hear in its entirety on a radio broadcast, the Variations and Fugue on "La Folia" by Mexican composer Manuel Ponce will be performed by Eduardo Fernandez from a London-Decca recording released in 1989. Written in 1931 for Andres Segovia, Ponce based his piece on the Baroque composer Arcangelo Corelli's Violin Sonata,"La Folia," which it itself based on an earlier famous melody.
The short but sweet anonymous Romance will be played by guitarist Milos Karadaglic in an orchestral arrangement with the English Chamber Orchestra. And to close the hour, some music from the late French Renaissance by Adrien Leroy played by the Ensemble Clement Janequin.
Join me Saturday at 7 and Wednesday evening at 7 for Fretworks here on Classical 101.
In the video below, Andres Segovia plays a shortened version of Ponce's Variations and Fugue on "La Folia."
