Rodrigo - Concierto De Aranjuez [Yepes/ Navarro-Philharmonia Orchestra]Here's this sunny evergreen again, this time played by Narciso Yepes, who has helped immensely in bringing this work into the public eye.
In a lot of ways the booklet picture says it all, the Royal Palace at Aranjuez, with a tree overhanging in the foreground, the Concierto was inspired by the gardens of this palace.
I cannot help being moved by the middle movement Adagio, even though the outer movements are of a very high calibre, my heart always returns to this central piece, it speaks for many people, it starts with the guitar gently strumming, and then the tune comes in with the cor anglais [0:07-0:41], the perfect instrument to evoke something long lost or far away, on this wonderful intro the guitar is able to build on with its solo appearance [0:41-1:16], however the cor anglais keeps making its presence felt [1:20-1:51], and the guitar keeps responding [1:53-2:34] the two intertwine in a touching dialogue, Rodrigo's wife Victoria revealed that this slow movement was 'an evocation of the happy days of their honeymoon', [and the sad days at the miscarriage of their first pregnancy], i don't know if Rodrigo is the guitar, and his wife the cor anglais, but it is a phenomenal duet, towards the end of the movement, the Orchestra explodes into a forte of the main tune [8:55-9:54], a hair raising moment, what a perfect middle movement.
Here's Narciso Yepes playing the Adagio on YouTube, notice the ten string guitar he plays.
