The Los Angeles Guitar Quartet is one of the premier guitar ensembles, and they'll play music of Georges Bizet from the 1875 opera Carmen in the Carmen Suite, from their 2001 Telarc CD "LAGQ Latin."
Four guitars make a good fit for the exciting, dramatic, and seductive music of Bizet's masterpiece about the Spanish temptress, and ultimately tragic figure, of this great opera.
You can hear the Carmen Suite on the next Fretworks on Classical 101.
Eduardo Fernandez, the fine guitarist from Uruguay, plays 6 Popular Catalan Songs by Spanish composer Miguel Llobet (1878-1938). This renowned Spanish guitarist/composer from Barcelona toured Europe and America frequently and was an influence on the younger Andreas Segovia, who achieved even greater fame.
The Guitar Concerto in E Minor of Ferdinando Carulli features Pepe Romero as soloist with the Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields and Iona Brown for music of one of the great early 19th century guitarist/composers.
Carulli was from Naples, but like other outstanding guitarists of the time such as Mauro Giuliani and Fernando Sor, he made his way to Paris, where for more than a decade Carulli was considered the greatest guitarist. This concerto was published in 1820 and is a fine example of music for guitar and orchestra at the time.
We'll go back to an earlier time for music of the Renaissance lute by Francesco da Milano (12497-1543), He was born near Milan and was regarded as the greatest lutenist of his time in Europe.
He lived and worked in the papal court in Rome for most of his career, although there is some speculation that he may have traveled and served at the court in Paris for a short time.
Francesco's music making was considered divine, and I'll have a recording with some heavenly playing from lutenist Hopkinson Smith's CD "Francesco da Milano: Il Divano." We'll hear a fantasia and recercar from this 2008 Naive release.
American guitarist and teacher David Starobin will end the hour with music from a guitar virtuoso from the mid 19th century, Giulio Regondi. Reverie, from 1864, is Regondi's most popular solo guitar piece and may be the first time the three-note tremolo technique was used. The effect is perhaps most famously used in Francisco Tarrega's Recuerdos de la Alhambra.
Join me for Fretworks Saturday and Wednesday evenings at 7 on Classical 101.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GUfE7sAKIw