Handel and Music From Bizet's Carmen on Next Fretworks

Conductor and arranger Peter Breiner has made an intriguing setting for guitar and orchestra of music from George Bizet's opera Carmen. Bizet's 1875 opera is so full of good tunes, Breiner made his arrangement into four movements lasting about 50 minutes.  He calls it the Carmen Concerto, and we'll have a portion of it on the next Fretworks program Saturday evening at 7 on Classical 101. Guitarist John Williams liked the tune known as the Harmonious Blacksmith from a harpsichord suite by George Frederic Handel so much, he arranged it for two guitars and plays both parts. We have a studio recording in which he overdubbed the second part after recording the first one. Hans Gal was a composer, teacher and pianist, born in Austria in 1890, and he died in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1987.  He wrote chamber works, orchestral music and operas, but we're going to hear the Suite for Three Mandolins from 1955 with members of the Badisches Zupforchester, an ensemble for plucked stringed instruments. Also included in the hour on Saturday, we have the Sonata Mexicana by Manuel Ponce and a fantasia by Alonso Mudarra.  Join me for an hour of the classical guitar and more here on Classical 101 on Fretworks.