Spanish composer Enrique Granados wrote his set of 8 Poetic Waltzes for the piano, but they sound wonderful performed on the guitar, too.
Now just add an orchestra. Czech conductor and arranger Peter Breiner has made an orchestral arrangement of this music, forming it into an 8 movement suite. On the next Fretworks, I'll have that arrangement of the Valses poeticos with Canadian guitarist Norbert Kraft and the Polish National Radio Orchestra with Breiner conducting.
Australian-born guitarist John Williams has arranged, performed and recorded music of Johann Sebastian Bach for quite some time. The arrangement we'll hear adds some real "depth" of sound He'll be accompanied by organist Peter Hurford for the Vivace from Trio Sonata No. 6 in G.
Russian guitarist Anton Baronov was the 2013 winner of the Guitar Foundation of America Competition. He's featured in a fine performance from his Naxos guitar recital CD. The three-movement Sonatine is a lively and engaging solo guitar work from 1994 by Argentinean composer Maximo Diego Pujol.
Pepe Romero, who was one of the original members of Los Romeros, the famous guitar family ensemble from Spain, has had an outstanding career as a solo artist as well. We'll hear him accompanied by a different ensemble for the Guitar Quintet No. 5 in D of Luigi Boccherini. The Academy Chamber Ensemble features Iona Brown and Malcolm Lachem, violins, Stephen Shingles, viola, and Denis Vigay, cello.
Boccherini was an Italian-born cellist and composer of the second half of the 18th century but spent a good portion of his life and career in Spain at the royal court in Madrid. He developed a natural feeling for the guitar and incorporated it into a number of his works. In this quintet, the guitar is fully integrated into the sound of the ensemble, so it's not just a virtuosic showpiece for the guitar. It is enjoyable music-making from a great bunch of musicians.
Join me for Fretworks for music of the classical guitar Saturday and Wednesday evenings at 7 on Classical 101. Here's Pepe Romero some years ago in the "Fandango" movement of the most famous of the quintets, No. 4 in D: