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LATIN AMERICAN GUITAR MUSIC Ginastera Lauro Montaña Martínez Palacio
DEION CHO First Prize Concurso Internacional de Guitarra Clásica Gredos San Diego
Four times four, plus two This young musician’s debut album is the perfect introduction to his artistry, showcasing as it does his performances of works by four leading twentieth-century composers of guitar music – Antonio José, Alberto Ginastera, Antonio Lauro and Julio Gentil Montaña – composers who in turn represent four different countries and four styles of music that differ widely both aesthetically and in terms of the traditions from which they spring. The works here therefore offer a balance between coherence and diversity, and the programme ends, appropriately enough, with a kind of musical signature from the performer: Deion Cho’s own arrangement of a traditional song from the Korean province of Gangwon, Han-O-bek-nyeon (About 500 years), a heartfelt lament related to the fall in 1392 of the Goryeo Dynasty, which had ruled over most of the Korean Peninsula for almost five centuries. Very different in mood is the carefree and upbeat opening work by Antonio José Martínez Palacios (1902-1936). One of the leading composers of the generation after Manuel de Falla, he was shot dead in Burgos shortly after the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in dramatic circumstances similar to those in which the poet Lorca died in Granada. The Romancillo infantil is Antonio José’s arrangement of a Castilian folk song which was originally part of a collection of songs with piano accompaniment and which he later adapted for solo guitar – his first attempt at writing for the instrument, inspired by his meeting guitarist Regino Sainz de la Maza in Málaga in 1928. A few years later, he composed his monumental Sonata (1933) for the same performer. Cast in four movements, this Neo-classical piece became one of the most important guitar works of the first half of the twentieth century. Sainz de la Maza never published it, however, and it lay forgotten among his personal papers for many years, only finally being issued in 1990 by the Italian publishers Berben in an edition by Angelo Gilardino. Since then, it has taken its rightful place in the core guitar repertoire. Sainz de la Maza did not perform the Romancillo infantil in the composer’s lifetime, but did plagiarise the work and publish it (in 1963) under 2
his own name, as part of the score he wrote for the film La frontera de Dios (God’s Frontier). A sad start in life for Antonio José’s guitar music. Argentine composer Alberto Ginastera (1916-1983) had more luck, or at least more immediate success, with his Sonata Op.47, the only work he ever wrote for guitar, although the essence of the instrument – especially the sounds of its open strings – can be heard in much of his music, a symbolic expression of traditional Latin American music. Ginastera wrote the sonata in 1976, working closely with its dedicatee, the great Brazilian guitarist Carlos Barbosa-Lima, who gave the premiere in Washington in November of the same year. The work borrows elements from Argentine folk music and expresses them in a severe, almost harsh idiom, as well as including some very unconventional guitar writing in places. Like Antonio José’s sonata, this is another of the undisputed masterpieces of the twentieth-century guitar repertoire. Venezuelan guitarist Antonio Lauro (1917-1986), a pupil of Raúl Borges, was a talented composer as well as performer. He studied composition with musicologist Vicente Emilio Sojo, with whom he shared both a love of Venezuela’s folk music and a political stance that resulted in a ten-year period of exile from his homeland during the régime of General Pérez Jiménez. Several of his most notable guitar works, including the Suite venezolana, his Guitar Concerto and Guitar Sonata, date from this period, but his best-known pieces are his lively, syncopated Valses venezolanos (Venezuelan waltzes), four of which are recorded here, all early works: Natalia, his best-known waltz, dedicated to his daughter; Tatiana and Andreina, dedicated to his nieces; and Yacambú. All are attractive, dazzling pieces which make full use of the guitar’s resources, and they have been championed by such leading performers as Alirio Díaz and John Williams. Like Lauro, and unlike non-guitarists Ginastera and Antonio José, the Columbian musician Julio Gentil Montaña (1942-2011) had a successful international career as a performer, but achieved even greater recognition as a composer of guitar music 3
firmly rooted in the folk tunes of his native country. His works include a series of “Columbian suites”, of which the four-movement Suite colombiana No.4 is included here. The first movement is a pasillo (a dance form) subtitled “Nostalgia bogotana”. As in Suites Nos.2 and 3, the pasillo acts as a prelude, while its opening motif is reminiscent of Lauro’s Natalia waltz. Stylistically and technically the other three movements too have much in common with Lauro – in line with the late Romantic style of Agustín Barrios, the emblematic figure of Latin American guitar music – but also introducing touches of jazz. Apart from the Romancillo infantil and the Korean song that bookend this programme, the repertoire here revolves around the number four: four composers, four countries, four works, each in four parts… This may or may not be some kind of superstition on the guitarist’s part – either way I hope it brings luck to this debut CD from a soloist who is surely destined to achieve greatness in the guitar world. © Javier Suárez-Pajares (Musicologist and President of the Spanish Guitar Society)
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Deion Cho (Daegu, South Korea, 1992) began playing the guitar at the age of thirteen, studying with Hong Sang-ki, Lee Song-ou and Shin In-geun, among others (2006–2010). Having made his professional debut at the 2007 Vladivostok Guitar Festival, he went on to give many concerts in South Korea. In 2010 he moved to Spain to continue his musical education and is currently studying at Madrid’s Royal Conservatory with Gabriel Estarellas, Gerardo Arriaga and Miguel Trapaga. He has also taken part in masterclasses given by such eminent musicians as Álvaro Pierri, Eduardo Fernández, David Russell, Joaquín Clerch, Marco Socias, Margarita Escarpa, Reinvert Evers, Ricardo Gallén, Kostas Tosidis and Pedro Mateo. He has won a number of awards, including first prizes in the Fourth Gredos San Diego International Classical Guitar Competition, the Sixteenth Ciutat d’Elx Guitar Festival and the Ninth Norba Caesarina International Guitar Festival (all 2014). Deion plays a Paulino Bernabé guitar on loan from the Spanish Guitar Foundation, from which he also receives a grant.
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The Gredos San Diego International Classical Guitar Competition The Gredos San Diego Cooperative is an educational and cultural organisation based in Madrid, and music is a key aspect of the wide range of activities it supports. The Cooperative provides educational services to 15,000 young people, and its Music School courses welcome an average of 1000 students per year. As well as offering instrumental classes (piano, guitar, violin, woodwind, brass and percussion), it also supports a number of instrumental and vocal ensembles, and recently established the Gredos San Diego Professional Music Centre in Madrid. The musical projects backed by the GSD Cooperative aim to reflect the level of excellence achieved within its educational community. The Fourth Gredos San Diego International Classical Guitar Competition took place between 5 and 10 May 2014. The jury of the Professional Competition was made up of Joaquín Clerch (chair), Ricardo Gallén, David Martínez, Paolo Pegoraro and Javier Somoza, while that of the Student Competition was made up of José Luis Rodrigo (chair), Marisol Plaza and Avelina Vidal. The winner of the Professional Competition was Deion Cho, who received a €5000 cash prize, two concert engagements (one with orchestra) and the opportunity to record this album with Brilliant Classics. Second prize (€3000 and one concert engagement) went to Mircea-Stefan Gogoncea, and third (€2000) to Alí Jorge Arango Marcano. The winner of the Student Competition was Javier García Verdugo, who received a €6000 Manuel Jr. Río guitar and a €1000 cash prize. Second prize (a Manuel Rodríguez FG guitar valued at €2000 and a €500 cash award) went to Dmytro Omelchak. At the gala finale, Deion Cho performed Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez, accompanied by pianist Dina Nedeltcheva.
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Recording: 14-17 October 2014, Iglesia de San Miguel, Cuenca, Spain Producer, Recording engineer and Editing: Gonzalo Noqué Equipment: Neumann U89i microphones, Horus preamplifier and converter, Pyramix DAW. Guitar: 2010 Paulino Bernabé, Model Royal Cover image: © Gredos San Diego S. Coop. Mad. p & © 2016 Brilliant Classics
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