There is something that lives in those Spanish composers. That Mediterranean air did something to them that made each their note to say something very distinct from the typical Germano-Slav’s expressiveness. Probably the most famous Spanish Guitar composition is the Joaquin Rodrigo’s “Concierto de Aranjuez”, and I am not exception: I love this work and I am playing Rodrigo today quite a lot. The best Rodrigo unquestionably was played by Narciso Yepes (whatever he played should be snatched anyway). Yepes made a number of recordings of the “Concierto de Aranjuez”. Two of them are probably the best: Garcia Navarro with Philharmonia Orchestra ( DG 2531 208 ) Ataulfo Argenta with The National Orchestra of Spain. ( London STS 15199 ) This last one is the very ultimate performances known to me. As the special treat here is the Argenta/Yepes super-release of the “Concierto de Aranjuez”. This is a London Tokyo BIEM Release SLA 1016. It has very different surface noise (very in-tune with the orchestra tone!!!), the dynamic range as large that it is not funny; the string group do not loose themselves into the ambianc blend in the end of the first movement (as it happens on any records I own) and it has a grooves so tool that you may hide the “Titanic” between them. If you can dig it out then do so… The Meow.
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