I believe that in every CD there is something autobiographic, something belonging to one’s own story. At the end of this work, I realize how true this is particularly as regards my latest CD, where every composer represents a precise moment in my itinerary, in my artist’s life. Leo Brouwer was my first contact with contemporary music, thanks to the Estudios sencillos; they were a necessary stage for young students, yesterday as today, in the passage between the studies by the Classics and the compositions by the twentieth century masters. Later I had the opportunity of knowing Abel Carlevaro; at first thanks to his pedagogical publications, and, later, thanks to a recording by one of his most representative students, i.e. Baltazar Benitez, performing the five Preludios Americanos. These were the very first works I studied under the guidance of Maestro Angelo Gilardino, the teacher I had chosen, who could give a definitive answer to my many questions and doubts. Since the very first lesson with him, I realized that I had reached a higher level. Gilardino’s knowledge of the repertoire (not only for the guitar), his elaboration of an absolutely innovative technique, and his quest for the most appropriate aesthetical approach for each composer: all this gave to the instrument that I had played for so many years, and to which I was devoting many efforts, a dignity equal to the “upper crust” instruments. From that day, Gilardino was my true and only point of reference, the Polar Star who guided my path as a guitarist, as an artist, as a man. Chronologically, the last acquaintance I made was that with Fabio Frizzi; it happened, as is often the case, on the occasion of a concert organized by common friends. From that time, we shared many moments together: on stage (Frizzi conducting and I being the soloist), in the recording studio (he as the composer and I as the performer), or, more simply, in completely informal situations, where we shared our great, common passion for the guitar.
In accord with the Publishing Company’s Artistic Direction, we decided that it was best for the composers to introduce their works in their own words:
5 Preludios Americanos
Abel Carlevaro was certainly the most distinguished personality in the world of guitar in Uruguay. Thanks to his multifaceted activity as a performer, teacher and composer, he came to the attention of the international guitar world during the second half of the twentieth century. As he himself admitted, Carlevaro always sought, through a “scientific” approach, to answer the technical problems he encountered, time and again, when playing the guitar. This research, which lasted for some decades, resulted in the production of the 4 Cuadernos, and, later, of the book Escuela de la guitarra – Exposición de la teoría instrumental.
The 5 Preludios Americanos were the first works Carlevaro wrote for solo guitar, between 1969 and 1975. As the title suggests, these works are the composer’s ideal homage to Latin American Music; yet Carlevaro himself did not wish to label each Prelude with a precise reference. In all these works, the composer employs a tripartite form, presenting a well-defined key with key signatures; still, the language he uses eschews every simplistic classification. The composer wisely mixes folkloric elements (tango, milonga, candombe), jazz harmonies and elements strictly pertaining to classical music. Carlevaro’s final result are five works written with great compositional skill, whose musical language is immediate, and displaying the composer’s thorough knowledge of the instrument: the guitar can always play fluidly and use entirely its full timbral and dynamic potential.
(C. G.)
Sunset Boulevard
In summer 2020 I composed the triptych for solo guitar by the title of Sunset Boulevard – a certainly not unheard-of title! – as a sign of friendship for the Roman guitarist Claudio Giuliani, a performer of excellent quality and a very appreciated scholar. He is not the first, but he is certainly one of the most motivated among the guitarists who juxtaposed their research in the early and classical repertoire with that on the new one.
In its three, different and somewhat contrasting movements, Sunset Boulevard is a work in which the elderly composer’s affections, and his perceptions of the world in which his life is declining, are mixed in the sign of a fading-out of reality, present in mystery and distance. It is neither a grievous journal, nor a series of fantastic evocations; rather, it is the quiet observation of what escapes even one’s long experience, becoming indecipherable (“Io non so più chi va e chi resta”, “I no longer know who goes and who stays”). The rhythmical variants and the contrapuntal intertwining do not belong, then, to a historical past, nor they point to an enlightened or prophetic vision of the future; rather, they are fixed on present time, in the particular belief that music alone cannot solve the enigmas, but it may reflect, in the magic formulas of the guitar’s sound, the resignation and a kind of bliss deriving from the nearing of the “eternal nothing”.
(Angelo Gilardino, Vercelli, 3 August, 2021)
Preludios “Los amores difíciles” –
Preludios Epigramáticos
It is extremely difficult for me to speak about my own music, to reveal how I compose, or to define my style, if such a thing exists. When I compose, I do not always think of the structure in advance. It is the sound which interests me particularly. The sound matter develops in the same fashion as spoken language in a dialogue or soliloquy.
The preludes “Los amores difíciles” (2021) are dedicated to Maestro Claudio Giuliani. I passionately engaged in the project, because I immediately thought of that great one, Italo Calvino. It is a cycle of three pieces, “programmatically” (so to speak) grounded on his stories of the same name, and on the elements of universal philosophy commented by Calvino in his Sei proposte per il prossimo millennio [Six memos for the next millenium].
I think that the idea of including another cycle, such as the Preludios epigramáticos I composed in 1981 (exactly forty years ago), is excellent. Thanks, Maestro Giuliani.
(Leo Brouwer, 3 August 2021)
7 Preludi
This story began a long time ago. After many years of a constant improvement in my study of the guitar, I had decided to aim high. I began to attend the studio of Sergio Notaro, my new teacher. At that time, in the early Seventies, the repertoire for classical guitar was beginning to have a very respectable size and variety. The work by Andrés Segovia and many other brilliant interpreters and composers had contributed to give this wealth of possibilities to the instrument. And Sergio who, in a certain sense, was a direct emanation of Segovia, took out from his trunk many musical delicacies.
A composer who immediately conquered me was Heitor Villa-Lobos, possibly because, as had happened with me, he had loved Bach so much. Many of his works revealed this influence; in particular, I found his Five Preludes to be irresistible.
Lo, the guitar preludes.
Much later, when my life as a composer was dedicated to cinema, I decided that I had to spend a little of my enthusiasm for celebrating the instrument I always loved; the form which naturally came to me was precisely that of the Prelude.
In the early Nineties, my first six Preludes for the guitar were born; they were dedicated to a dear friend of mine, Flavio Ciatto, who alas is no more among us.
That was a very challenging and very satisfying compositional experience; from that moment, all of my guitarist friends (including Claudio Giuliani) occasionally tried their hand in performing some of them, giving beautiful and personal interpretations of my Preludes, which always filled me with pride.
When Claudio told me his idea to create a CD project gathering the best Preludes written for the guitar, and that he had included me in his prestigious artistic cast, I jumped on my chair. And I thought that the moment had come, twenty years later, to add a new work to my old experience.
“Preludio n. 7 – Green hope” is a short ode to Hope, a common and important feeling that I thought it opportune to celebrate.
My dedication to Claudio Giuliani is not only the due homage to him who performed it for the first, but it is also a justified and affectionate recognition to a great musician who made, of the guitar, a true life project.
Album notes by Fabio Frizzi