The legendary guitarist Sharon Isbin and Pacifica Quartet join forces for "Souvenirs of Spain & Italy," which includes works for guitar and strings by Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Vivaldi, and Boccherini.
Souvenirs of Spain & Italy, an uncommon album of music for strings and guitar from the Baroque to the mid-20th century. Available August 23, 2019 on Cedille Records (CDR 90000 190), the program spotlights Italian-born composers influenced by Spanish idioms.
Hear an interview between Sharon Isbin and Classiclectic host Kurt Hauswirth, all about the new release:
Souvenirs of Spain & Italy is the first joint recording by these renowned artists who first performed together several years ago at the Aspen Music Festival, and marks Isbin's Cedille Records debut. Works include Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco's Quintet for Guitar and String Quartet, Op. 143, a seldom-heard gem demanding virtuosity from every player. Written for guitarist Andrés Segovia, it's "an urbane work, rich in vibrant themes and dialogues among individual lines," veteran critic Allan Kozinn writes in the liner notes. Emilio Pujol's guitar arrangement of Antonio Vivaldi's Lute Concerto in D Major, RV 93, edited by Isbin, features Isbin's own Baroque ornamentation in the dreamlike, meditative Largo movement, and Luigi Boccherini's Quintet for Guitar and String Quartet in D Major, G. 448 melds the emerging classical style of late 18th-century Vienna with hints of Spanish flamenco in the lively Fandango. The album "brings together three notably successful combinations of plucked and bowed strings," Kozinn writes. In addition, the Pacifica performs Spanish composer Joaquín Turina's string quartet, La oración del torero, Op. 34.