Album Notes

-A proper title for this recording might well be “Le Tombeau de Segovia” – or perhaps more aptly, “Ommagio a Segovia.” It is no exaggeration to say that most of the major works for classical guitar published within the 20th century are inscribed to Andrés Segovia. That this should be so is only aspect of the celebrated artist, which would make him unique. Segovia’s influence has been so pervasive as to create a sizable repertoire that never would have come into being without him. The works presented here by his pupil, Stephen Robinson, are among those dedicated to Segovia by his own contemporaries, each of the composers born within a few years of the other and little more than a decade away from the great master. In most cases, composers who wrote for Segovia were responding to his request for music for the instrument.

This was less true, however, of Federico Moreno-Torroba (1891-1982), who was the first non-guitarist composer to volunteer to write for Segovia. The melodies and rhythms of Torroba’s music exude the spirit of his Zarazuelas - - the Spanish Music Theatre form for which he is famous. The music Robinson plays here reflects little of the impressionism that the programmatic titles suggest, those having been chosen by Torroba from the castles he had himself visited. What is apparent is the distinctly Spanish nature of this music, and the clear sense of the indigenous quality of the instrument by the composer. Placing as he does the movements of the suite in usual contrast to each other accentuates all the more the suggestion of dance. This has been a structural feature of such suites since their inception during the Renaissance.

-Segovia’s friend and confidante of many years, Alexandre Tansman, is a peripatetic figure on the international musical scene. A native of Poland, Tansman is known not only as a composer, but also as a pianist and writer; his books include an early biography of Stravinsky.

-Tansman (1897-1987) composed many works for Segovia, his Cavatina Suite among his later compositions for guitar. While Cavatina seems a peculiar title for a dance suite (Cavatina denotes “song”), it is an appropriate characterization of the style heard here. This five-movement work is typical of much of the music Segovia inspired. It exploits the melodic aspects of the instrument, without any loss of the chordal colors for which it is best known. Tansman has not neglected that favorite texture of many, however, evoking in the Scherzino the rapid tremolo of the flamenco. The final movement of the Tansman suite (Danza Pomposa) is appended, bearing a copyright date that is a decade later than that of the other four.

-Perhaps the best-known composer in this group, Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco (1895-1968) met Segovia in Venice in 1932. There, a long association began, resulting in some of Segovia’s most performed pieces. The Italian composer published his Sonata in D in 1935, bearing the sub-title “Ommaggio a Boccherini.” The work, despite the sub-title, is marked “per Andrés Segovia,” the bow to Boccherini probably reflecting that classical composer’s long residence in Spain and his compositions for the guitar, a relative rarity in the 18th century.

-The sonata follows the classical four-movement format, but is perhaps the most “modern-sounding” of the works on this disc. Castelnuovo-Tedesco calls for “scorda-tura” (a re-tuning of the six strings which departs from the conventional E-A-D-G-B-E order). The result is an enticing sonority, and has made this a highly popular piece in the modern repertoire for guitar.

-The year 1928 marked an important milestone in the rapidly developing repertoire for guitar for which Segovia was responsible. Five years earlier Segovia has met Manuel Ponce (1882-1948), the great Mexican composer whose devotion to Segovia’s virtuosity produced his first major work for the guitar, Sonata Mexicana in four movements. By 1928, Ponce’s catalog of guitar music had grown to include his Sonata III.

-In three movements, the sonata has a strong tonal center on D – first minor, then major. The felicitous harmonies are explored with some complicated technical demands, showing the coloristic capabilities of the instrument hardly known before Segovia made them available to an ever-growing public. Ponce’s formal organization is classic, and his tonal vocabulary highly chromatic. The fast-slow-fast arrangement of the movements provides a first movement in sonata form, a son-like second movement, and a finale in the form of a rondo.

Dr. Paul Langston