Welcome to Hyperion Records, an independent British classical label devoted to presenting high-quality recordings of music of all styles and from all periods from the twelfth century to the twenty-first.

Hyperion offers both CDs, and downloads in a number of formats. The site is also available in several languages.

Please use the dropdown buttons to set your preferred options, or use the checkbox to accept the defaults.

Click cover art to view larger version
Track(s) taken from SIGCD244

Elogio de la guitarra

composer
1971

Charles Ramirez (guitar), Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Douglas Boyd (conductor)
Recording details: December 2010
Sherbourne Manor, Warwickshire, United Kingdom
Produced by Nicholas Parker
Engineered by Mike Hatch & Craig Jenkins
Release date: January 2011
Total duration: 14 minutes 38 seconds
 

Reviews

'Guitar virtuoso Charles Ramirez is on supple, sensitive form on this collection of Rodrigo suites, accompanied on the Concierto de Aranjuez and Fantasia para un gentilhombre by the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, before closing with the solo piece Elogio de la guitarra. The 'Concerto' is the classical guitar composition par excellence, light and absorbing, with the spirited first movement giving way to the second movement’s darker depths before the pastoral closing section concludes on a positive note. The 'Fantasia' was based on themes collected by Gaspar Sanz, the seventeenth-century composer who helped establish the guitar as a serious instrument' (The Independent)

'Guitar virtuoso Charles Ramirez is on supple, sensitive form on this collection of Rodrigo suites' (The Independent)

'Concierto de Aranjuez sparkles in the hands of Charles Ramirez. Even more impressive is the more virtuosic Elogio de la guitarra, where Ramirez sustains some fiendish fingerwork' (The Daily Telegraph)

'Ramirez is technically masterful, his tone rich, his musical ideas intelligent' (Classic FM)
His concertante compositions aside, Rodrigo wrote some two dozen other works for solo guitar. Amongst these, the Elogio de la guitarra, composed in 1971, is a remarkable testament to the breadth and depth of Rodrigo’s understanding of Spain’s national instrument. This Ode (or Tribute) to the guitar is a substantial work in the manner of a sonata and demands a formidable technique from the performer. It seems to have been originally conceived as a work for guitar and orchestra by the Italian Composer, Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, reflecting facets of the guitar and, naturally, also of Spain itself: nobility, church polyphony and, of course, the dance. Unfulfilled at his death, Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s idea was proposed to Rodrigo by the guitarist, and eventual dedicatee, Angelo Gilardino. Rodrigo kept to the original plan and title, but decided against including orchestral accompaniment or explicit movement titles. The composer himself wrote of the piece, ‘My intention was to demand a precise and infallible technique of the guitarist, as well as a profound sensitivity to the framework and thematics of the music. I have composed my ‘challenge’ to the guitarist…’—and a challenge it most certainly is. The opening sonata form movement expresses the nobility of the guitar in its use of grand chordal movement, while its successor is described by Rodrigo as evoking an ‘ancient Castilian cathedral’. The final movement makes what Rodrigo’s wife described as ‘diabolical requirements’ on the player and dances on to a dramatic and thrilling climax—a suitable homage to the instrument for which the composer helped create a new golden age.

from notes by M Ross © 2011

Waiting for content to load...
Waiting for content to load...