A Balanced & Tasty Offering

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Liz Hogg full profile / Solo guitar / 1 musician

Full program notes

Regondi: Etude #6
Barrios: La Catedral
Isaac Albéniz: Asturias (Leyenda)
BREAK
Bach: Lute Suite No. 1 In E Minor, BWV 996-II. Allemande
Regondi: Etude #1
Giuliani: Variations On A Theme Of Handel, Op. 107

Historical context

The 10 Etudes for Guitar by Giulio Regondi represent the pinnacle of technical achievement for 19th century guitar performance. Dense textures, large stretches, fast scales and arpeggios, and obscure modulations are used in combinations that were unrivaled among his contemporaries. Etude #6 is one of many lovely studies from Regondi, this one unusually substantial for a guitar etude. It is an exercise in bringing out a high melody above accompaniment and has a beautiful melancholic mood.

Recognized as Paraguayan composer Barrios Mangoré’s masterpiece, the 3-movement work La Catedral (The Cathedral), dating from 1921, uses both the ambient sound of the cathedral bells coupled with the internal sound of an organist playing Bach as points of inspiration.

Asturias, original title Preludio, or Prélude, also called Asturias-Leyenda and Leyenda, is a solo piano piece written in the early 1890s by Catalan composer and pianist Isaac Albéniz, using rolled chords that effectively evoke the strumming of a guitar. It was arranged later on for guitar, most famously by Segovia, who helped it become one of the pinnacle pieces of guitar repertoire.

Suite in E minor, BWV 996, is a musical composition written by Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750) between 1708 and 1717. It is probable that this suite was intended for Lautenwerck (lute-harpsichord). Because the lautenwerk is a highly uncommon instrument, it is in modern times often performed on the guitar or the lute. It is a six movement piece that, as is typical of the time, opens with a Prelude, then continues with dance movements: an Allemande, followed by a Courante, then a Sarabande, then a Bourree, and finishing with a Gigue.

Regondi’s Etude #1 is a C major exuberant and fairly clear cut piece to start off his set of etudes. It develops with a sequence towards the last half before resolving peacefully with a dramatic C major arpeggiated cadence.

Variations on a Theme by Handel Op. 107 is one of Giuliani’s most popular set of variations. The theme comes from the popularly nicknamed The Harmonious Blacksmith, the final movement, Air and Variations, from Suite No. 5 in E major, HWV 430, for harpsichord by George Frideric Handel (1685-1759). Giuliani does not follow Handel’s variations but simply uses the theme and writes his own set.

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