Francisco Tárrega: Complete Guitar Works, Vol. 2

Description

The second volume of the complete guitar works by Tárrega issued in this Da Vinci Classics recording encompasses an impressive quantity of pieces. A cursory look to the publication’s track list reveals that there are just two pieces whose duration exceeds five minutes: the opening Sueño and the concluding Recuerdos de la Alhambra. All the other tracks last between a handful of seconds and one or two minutes.
In fact, this recording is practically entirely composed of Etudes or Preludes, either explicitly or implicitly indicated as such. These two genres are closely related. They share some common features: they are normally short; they typically focus on few musical ideas, frequently explored by means of modular writing; they regularly appear in collections grouping sets of them; and they often present and represent one particular technical difficulty and/or musical characterization.
An iconic collection of Preludes (intended, as the etymology goes, as “prefacing”, or “introducing” something else, in this case Fugues) is obviously that of Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier, which inspired and influenced most later composers. And many of Bach’s Preludes could be also labelled as Etudes – as Etudes of the highest musical quality, of course. Similar to Etudes, they are built on a single technical/musical idea, repeated, transposed, adapted, and modified so as to provide harmonic and melodic variety, and, at the same time, technical challenges. Frédéric Chopin, who wrote 24 Preludes and 24 Etudes, seems at time to blur the boundary between the two genres in turn. Some of his Preludes – closely following Bach’s model – resemble true Etudes, and some of the Etudes are characterized by brevity, lyricism, and/or an improvisational style which reproduce traits of the Preludes.
Within this collection authored by Tárrega, there are some of his most famous and beloved works, along with others which are less known and less frequently performed. Among the celebrated pieces are certainly the first and the last, i.e. Sueño and Recuerdos de la Alhambra. Both, interestingly, are conceived as (highly musical) tremolo etudes.
They are justly famous, not least because they perfectly embody the personality and the most pronounced traits of Tárrega’s musicianship.
Born in Villareal, in the region of Valencia, in 1852, as a child he manifested the symptoms of an eye disease, which was likely to leave him blind or very short-sighted. His father, whose social status was humble, was worried for the child’s future. At that time, music was practically the only professional path in which blind people could excel, and through which they could earn a living. Thus, Tárrega’s father encouraged him to study music, and the child was tutored by two blind musicians, i.e. Eugenio Ruiz (piano and solfège) and Manuel Gonzales (guitar).
When the boy was ten, he remained dumbstricken by a performance by the great guitarist Julián Arcas, who, in turn, auditioned him and was deeply impressed by the child’s gifts and skills. Arcas advised that the young musician should study in Barcelona; however, as a student, Tárrega was far from disciplined. In comparison with the requirements of academic education, Tárrega had more fun in playing the guitar in various venues between his hometown and the capital city of Catalunya.
Later, however, the pleas of his father and the economic support of a wealthy merchant convinced Tárrega to follow a more serious lifestyle, and to enroll in the Conservatory of Madrid as a piano student. Even though he was highly admired for his piano skills, it was also unanimously acknowledged that he was peerless as a guitarist. The Director of the Conservatory, upon hearing one of his performances, is reported to have said: “The guitar needs you, and you were born for it”.
Thus, Tárrega began an extremely successful career as a guitar soloist, which led him to play in the major European capitals (such as Paris and London), and to tour the Continent to universal acclaim.
His career would be abruptly cut short by a paralysis involving his right hand in 1906, when he was not yet in his mid-fifties. Although he recovered the capability of playing for a time, his health conditions discouraged him from reviving his concert tours; he was to die three years later, in 1909, deeply mourned by the musical world. This feeling was nourished by the traits of Tárrega’s personality, which were highly endearing and inspiring. Miguel Llobet concluded his memories of Tárrega saying that, “as a man, he was simply angelic. So, indeed, will his remembrance remain impressed forever in the soul of those who, like me, revered him as an artist and adored him as a friend”. The astonishing success enjoyed by Tárrega during his life did not dissuade him from considering human relationships (especially with family and friends, as well as with pupils) as the primary source of his happiness. He was carefree, or almost careless, with his own works; he published only a portion of them, and many of his manuscripts have been lost.
He was more drawn to the spiritual and artistic sphere than to the material one, and it was observed that his lifestyle was almost monastic. His aesthetic perspective was deeply poetical, with a certain melancholic detachment which is typical for the fin de siècle, with its luminous and its more nostalgic aspects. At the same time, he was an innovator in terms of guitar language and technique, introducing and/or popularizing several important changes which would pave the way for the great twentieth-century virtuosi, such as Segovia. Furthermore, Tárrega’s talent expressed itself both in his original works, and in the numerous transcriptions he realized, demonstrating both the potential of the guitar as a “symphonic” instrument, and his own skill and knowledge of the instrument. His interest in the works of other artists is exemplified also in this album, where several musicians provide inspiration for his works.
Among the many pieces recorded here, Lágrima (“Teardrop”) is another of Tárrega’s finest and most beloved works. In spite of its extreme brevity (a mere sixteen bars, taking approximately two minutes) it is a small masterpiece: the objective simplicity of its melody, which may appear as ingenuous, is counterbalanced by the refinement of the composer’s writing and by the clear, linear compositional structure. It is a dream-like, melancholic piece, alternating different moods just as the major and minor modes alternate. The evocation of “tears” is suggested by the numerous sighing motifs, arresting the melodic flow and suggesting a deep expressive dimension.
Oremus is another piece which deserves a few introductory words. It was the last work penned by the composer before his premature death, and therefore it was posthumously published. This raises some questions regarding some of its distinguishing features, i.e. whether they were explicitly willed by Tárrega or not. It is a transcription after a piece by Schumann, which is only partially arranged by Tárrega; furthermore, Schumann intended it as a “fantastic dance” (Phantasietanz, op. 124 no. 5) and marked it sehr schnell (“very fast”), whilst Tárrega (or the publisher?) called it Oremus (“Let us pray”) and indicated that it be played “very slowly”. The combination of Oremus with Endecha is very frequent (although here too it is unclear whether it had been envisaged by the composer or not). Endecha is a quintessentially late-Romantic piece, with broad melodic gestures and complex, refined harmonies.
Similarly, the Preludes are considered as among Tárrega’s most representative and personal, original works. Each is a miniature, a delicate sketch, which achieves both musical and technical goals, discovering new possibilities in terms of fingering and effects, but also employing these discoveries for exquisitely musical purposes. Many difficulties found in these pieces do not appear at first sight; there are many subtleties which only emerge after prolonged study and careful research.
Both in his Preludes and in his Etudes, Tárrega demonstrated the deliberation of his musical concept. Guitarist and composer Angelo Gilardino once said that his Nine Preludes, recorded here, represent “Tárrega’s deepest musical thought in a concentrated form”. The variety of Tárrega’s inspiration is also reflected by the “homages” found in this album: from Bach to Mendelssohn, from Schumann to Wagner, but also Cramer (who authored famous piano studies), Henselt (a great piano virtuoso) and others. This also shows that technical prowess and virtuosity were never an end in themselves, for Tárrega, but rather an instrument for achieving musical results and intense beauty. Not by chance, his studies bear titles which are highly suggestive: a typical example is the justly famous La Mariposa, “The Butterfly”, whose delicate fluttering is fascinatingly evoked by the complex guitar texture.
Tárrega fully earned, therefore, his fame as a genius composer and a genius guitarist. And even though his works are not missing from any guitarist’s repertoire, the difficult enterprise of recording them all is a praiseworthy endeavour. Only by considering his oeuvre and his output in their entirety are we able to grasp the full variety of his musical ideas and the wide-ranging palette of the colours and technical devices he employs. Only then, therefore, will we be able to correctly and justly assess the role of this master of the guitar, whose imprint is still felt as a comforting way ahead that all guitarists should tread.
Chiara Bertoglio © 2025