Works by Rodrigo and Latin Romances; Sharon Isbin, guitar

"Giving rise to a rich literature from the sixteenth century onwards, the guitar experienced a new golden age in Spain at the end of the nineteenth century with the development of modern technique, whose pioneers included Francesco Tárrega, known as the 'Paganini of the guitar' and the author of the moorish-style Capricho arabe included here. Later it fell to Andres Segovia to amplify Tárrega's researches, thus encouraging many other composers. Among these was Joaquín Rodrigo, a representative of a cultivated style of neo-classicism, whose fame is owed in great part to his Concierto [de] Aranjuez, a limpid, luminous work of considerable difficulty, composed in Paris in 1938-39. In the Fantasía para un gentilhombre, a tribute to the guitarist Gaspar Sanz (who died in 1710) and dedicated to Segovia, Rodrigo oscillates between a pre-classical style and quite bold harmonic writing, whilst his Invocación y Danza is full of life and passion" (CD notes by Adélaïde de Place).
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