Joaquin Rodrigo
Concierto de Aranjuéz
The music of Joaquin Rodrigo is steeped in the music and culture of his
native Spain, from Baroque music of the early Spanish church to folk melodies
and traditional Spanish folk instruments, especially the guitar. Born in Sagunto,
Valencia, in 1901, Rodrigo was blinded at the age of three by diphtheria, which
he said turned him early to a life of music. A talented pianist as well as
composer, he transcribed many of his orchestral works for one or two pianos. He
had a definite flair for the concerto form, over the years writing works for
various soloists including guitarist Andrés Segovia, flutist James Galway,
harpist Nicanor Zabaleta, and cellist Julian Lloyd Webber.
He won honors early for his 1924 work, Cinco piezas infantiles, as a young
music student at the Conservatoire in Valencia. He went on to study in Paris
with Paul Dukas at the École Normale de Musique, also receiving encouragement
from his fellow countryman, composer Manuel de Falla. The outbreak of the
Spanish Civil War in the late 1930s caused him to lose his Paris scholarship; he
and his wife, pianist Victoria Kamhi, barely made ends meet teaching music and
Spanish in France and Germany. But in 1939 they were able to return to Spain,
and in 1940 Rodrigo's Concierto de Aranjuez premiered in Barcelona with
guitarist Regino Sainz de la Maza. It was a rousing success and brought Rodrigo
international fame. It became the most popular 20th-century concerto ever
written, being arranged for many other solo instruments; the theme of the second
movement was also famously adapted by Miles Davis in his Sketches of Spain album
in 1960, his version in turn becoming a jazz standard. In 1992, in honor of
Rodrigo's 90th birthday, King Juan Carlos I of Spain awarded him the
hereditary title Marqués de los jardines de Aranjuez (Marquis of the gardens of
Aranjuez).
The 300-acre gardens of Aranjuez are part of an 18th-century summer palace of
the Bourbon kings of Spain, on the banks of the Tajo river outside Madrid.
Rodrigo described his concerto as capturing "the fragrance of magnolias, the
singing of birds and the gushing of fountains" -- in short, the beauties that a
blind man such as he could appreciate. In its Baroque form the work matches the
formality of the old palace. But the dances of the first and last movement and
the plaintive melody of the second have their roots in older, more primal
Spanish folk forms, making the work a brilliant fusion of quintessentially
Spanish style and Rodrigo's gift for melody.
The opening movement, Allegro con spirito, is based on traditional dances
such as the fandango. It is built on a series of alternations: the traditional
alternation between the solo instrument and the orchestra, a thematic
alternation between the strummed chords of the guitar and the melody introduced
by the violins, and a rhythmic alternation between the written time signature of
6/8 and frequent passages in 3/4. The opening demonstrates Rodrigo's ability to
balance the quieter guitar against a full orchestra. The guitar enters with a
strummed passage, joined by agile counterpoint from the woodwinds that never
overpowers the soloist, then the strings enter with quickly bowed chords
sounding for all the world like a giant guitar. The solo guitar uses techniques
from flamenco, as well as contrasting punteado (picked ornamentation in flying
scale passages) with rasgueados (strumming). The movement climaxes with a brisk
fandango segment complete with lively brass, then the guitar quiets the piece to
a gentle close.
Gentleness becomes longing in the Adagio. The guitar strums quietly while the
English horn plays a plaintive melody inspired by the saeta, an Andalusian
lament sung during Holy Week. This lament was sung by a few women as a religious
statue was carried through the streets, and their cry would be picked up by the
crowd. In this case, the guitar and English horn pass the theme back and forth,
and eventually the entire orchestra takes it up, mimicking the keening of the
crowds. The lamenting theme has a heartfelt quality inspired, according to a
friend of Rodrigo's, not only by the saeta but in response to the death of the
composer's infant son. Although an extended cadenza by the guitar leads the
orchestra to a passionate climax, the movement ends quietly and
reflectively.
The final movement, Allegro gentile, is a clever combination of
Baroque-sounding counterpoint and dancing, folk-like melodies. As in the first
movement, this one juxtaposes two time signatures, in this instance 2/4 and 3/4.
Various solo instruments and groups pass the final theme back and forth, and
after a final grand presentation, the movement and work end delicately, in
keeping with Rodrigo's suggestion that the concerto "should only be as strong as
a butterfly ... a suggestion of times past."
November 11, 2003
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