Album Notes

EON GUITAR QUARTET

The Eon Guitar Quartet was founded in 1999 and is made up by Giovanni Maselli, Rita Casagrande, Roberto Tascini e Mario Barbuti.
All four are graduates (with the highest marks) of various Italian conservatoires and have performed, and perform, as soloists as well as chamber music.
The Eon Guitar Quartet is, at this time, considered one of the best and most active chamber ensembles on the international guitar scene and many composers have dedicated pages to them.
The quartet has performed in numerous countries: Auditorio Nacional Blas Galindo “Encuentro Internacional de Guitarra” Mexico City (Mexico), International Guitar Festival Turku (Finland), Quito Guitar Festival (Ecuador), Katharinenkapelle Neunkirchen am Brand (Germany), Festival Internacional de Guitarra de Morelia (Mexico), Kaluga International Guitar Festival (Russia), Tallinn Guitar Festival (Estonia).
In Italy the quartet has been invited to play at many famous festivals (Bologna, Campobasso, Follonica, Grosseto, Napoli, Nuoro, Palermo, Porto San Giorgio, Ravello, Ravenna, Roma, Trento) and has always received enthusastic comments and reviews.

CD DESCRIPTION
A Guitar Quartet fascinates because of its extraordinary sonic versatility. From simple reinforcement of the solo instrumentalist and the use of refined timbre techniques, a guitar quartet can take on board many musical formations: from a string quartet to an entire symphonic orchestra.
This is the reason why we have chosen to present a repertoire of major symphonic works arranged for guitar quartet. To reinterpret and breathe new life into a music that as a heritage of European culture deserves to be continually enriched by new interpretations.
The essence of the guitar as a popular instrument finds a communal point in Antonín Dvořák’s op.46 Slavonic Dances. It was this novelty of style that led the Czech composer to be a major force in the rebirth of the National schools of East Europe at the beginning of the 20th Century.
The more intimate aspects of the guitar are found in Luigi Boccherini’s Grave assai and Fandango from Guitar Quintet in D major G448 and Federico Moreno Torroba’s Estampas (the latter written for guitar quartet). In the former, a delightful page of the Italian Rococò, the coreutic nature of the Fandango has been exalted by the spirited contribution of the rhythmic pizzicato guitar. In contrast the Estampas represents the vague paintings of an impressionist flavour where games of nuance are played out even during the most lively moments such as the popular “Fiesta en el pueblo”.
Bizet’s Carmen exudes the overwhelming dramatics of amorous passion and eroticism in Spain (known only through stories) and finds a new expressive energy in four guitars; it is a synthesis of his major work perhaps secretly occult in the ideas of Bizet.
Finally with Baião de Gude and A Furiosa written for guitar quartet by the Brazilian Paulo Bellinati, we find a guitar multipled by four in omorythmic passages: from the planned improvisations in some sections to the rhythmic-harmonic technique which defines the identity of the guitar in Brazilian culture.