Farewell to Stromness for Four Guitars on Next Fretworks

On the next Fretworks program Saturday evening at 7pm, we'll hear the Divertissiment for Plucked Instrument Orchestra by Dietrich Erdman.  The Berlin Guitar and Mandolin Orchestra led by Joel Betton will produce a shimmering cascade of sound with all those strings going at once. American guitarist Sharon Isbin will have a concerto by Antonio Vivaldi that she recorded with the Zurich Chamber Orchestra.  She performs an arrangement made by the Catalan guitarist, musicologist and composer Emilio Pujol.  It was originally a trio sonata for violin, lute and continuo. Pepe Romero has the Fantasy on Themes From Verdi's "Il Trovatore" by Johann Kasper Mertz.  Mertz was considered the greatest Viennese guitarist of the generation after Mauro Giuliani, the most renowned guitarist-composer of the early 19th century.  From the 20th century, Victor Villadangos plays the Guitar Sonata of Venezuelan composer and guitarist Antonio Lauro. To round out the hour, the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet will play an arrangement by Scott Tennant of the lovely Farewell to Stromness by Peter Maxwell Davies.  It's the eminent British composer's poignant piece about a small coastal town in northern Scotland that was once threatened to be wiped out by large-scale mining.  It was written as a form of protest. Join me Saturday evening at 7pm for Fretworks here on Classical 101.