The Castellani-Andriaccio Duo consists of guitarists Joanne Castellani and Michael Andriaccio, who joined forces way back in 1975 in Toronto. They're still going strong, and their CD Anima del Sur ("Soul of the South") features music for two guitars from Latin America. We'll hear Jongo, a Brazillian dance by Paolo Bellinati on the next Fretworks.
World renowned lutenist Paul O'Dette is from Columbus, and among his many accomplishments he has been a professor of the lute and has served as Director of Early Music at the Eastman School of Music in New York since 1976. He has recorded all of the lute music of John Dowland, a contemporary of William Shakespeare. We'll hear a couple of selections from Volume 5 of his acclaimed series of the Complete Lute Music from Harmonia Mundi.
The Concierto Madrigal, a work for two guitars and orchestra by Spanish composer Joaquin Rodrigo, was commissioned by Alexander Lagoya and Ida Presti in 1966. It was written in the form of a suite and is based on the Renaissance madrigal Felices ojos mios ("Happy Eyes of Mine"). The first public performance, however, took place at the Hollywood Bowl in 1970 with Pepe and Angel Romero as soloists with the Los Angeles Symphony Orchestra. Our performance on Fretworks features them with the Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields in a 1974 recording made in London.
American guitarist David Starobin's Variations on a Theme by Carl Nielsen pays homage to his love of the music of Denmark and its most famous composer by using one of Nielsen's songs for voice and piano, Song Behind the Plow, as a starting point. Starobin first performed this piece in June of 2011 at the Carl Nielsen Hall in Odense, Denmark.
Join me for Fretworks Saturday and Wednesday evenings at 7 on Classical 101.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOwO9ZAtQVY