There are two themes to this recording: the time-honoured genre of the folía, and an instrument made for and played by the greatest guitarist of the 20th century, Andres Segovia. With his determination to expand the repertoire of guitar music and extend the instrument beyond its associations with his native Spain, Segovia commissioned three works played here by Javier Somoza: the Variations à travers les siècles by Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Variaciones y Fuga sobre la Folía de España by Ponce and a set of Four Short Pieces by Frank Martin. Segovia eventually decided that Martin’s idiom was too dissonant for his taste and so never played them, but the pieces have since become classics of the mid-20th-century repertoire alongside works by Britten and Henze.
Works:
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Castelnuovo-Tedesco: Variazioni attraverso i secoli, Op. 71
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Martin, F: Pièce brève for oboe, flute & harp
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Martin, F: Quatre Pieces Breves
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Mudarra: Tres Libros de Musica en cifra para vihuela
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Murcia: Folias Espanolas
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Murcia: Folias Italianas despacio
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Ohana: Tiento
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Ponce, M: Diferencias sobre la folia de Espana y fuga