Search - Peter Breiner, Isaac Albeniz, Manuel de Falla :: Rodrigo : Concierto De Aranjuez

Inferior provincial orchestra

Leslie Richford | Selsingen, Lower Saxony | 01/27/2005

(2 out of 5 stars)

"Naxos appears to have recorded Joaquin Rodrigo?s (1901 ? 1999) wonderfully evocative ?Concierto de Aranjuez? no less than three times, something that, on this repertoire-orientated label, is reserved for music that can really generate turnover. Gerald Garcia?s version was the first of the series, recorded together with eight orchestrations of piano pieces by Albéniz, de Falla and Granados in November 1988. It was followed in 1992 by Canadian guitarist Norbert Kraft accompanied by the Northern Chamber Orchestra and directed by Nicholas Ward; the third Naxos recording was made in 2001 as part of a multi-volume series with the complete orchestral works of Rodrigo.



Gerald Garcia is a wonderful guitarist, and the quality of his recording was good enough for me to enjoy the Concierto and listen to it over and over again. But in the end, I was so enamoured of the piece that I listened to other versions and discovered that the Garcia had an Achilles? heel, namely the provincial East Slovakian orchestra which really does not sound at all brilliant in comparison with either the Northern Chamber Orchestra or the Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields (soloist: Pepe Romero). This may have something to do with the engineering (Naxos tends to overemphasize the soloist at the expense of the accompaniment), but I have noticed on other recordings with the State Philharmonic of Ko?ice that their playing is rather inferior to that of some of the other Eastern European orchestras that Naxos used to employ. Therefore, I strongly suggest going for one of Naxos?s later recordings if you want a budget-price version.



Conductor Peter Breiner is quite an all-rounder, and here he has orchestrated eight piano pieces in order to make something of a guitar concerto out of them. Their Spanish flavour is very much in evidence in this version, and Gerald Garcia writes in his notes of a ?distinguished addition? to previous orchestrations. This is unusual and fascinating repertoire.

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