njoy the U.S. premiere of Rodrigo's Palillos Y Panderetas and guitarist Ricardo Iznaola's expressive and masterful playing of the Concierto de Aranjuez. The intimacy of the Rodrigo Concerto poses a sharp contrast to Brahms' epic Symphony No. 4, which closes the concert.

Ricardo Iznaola
One of the most attractive personalities of the guitar world, Ricardo Iznaola pursues a brilliant, multifaceted, musical career. Mr. Iznaola, an American citizen, was born in Havana, Cuba, in 1949. His activities as a performer, composer,pedagogue, lecturer, and writer have been distinguished by international critical acclaim and the admiration of colleagues and audiences alike. He has been called “one of the most seminal players, teachers and thinkers of the guitar scene today” (Soundboard Magazine) and an “expressive, full of character, persuasive and assured musician with flair as well as technique” (Los Angeles Times).

As performer and composer, Iznaola has been awarded top prizes in eight international competitions, including the Munich International Competition, the Francisco Tárrega Award in Spain, which he won twice, and the Stroud International Composers’ Competition in England.

Simultaneously to guitar studies under the eminent Spanish master Regino Sainz de la Maza, Mr. Iznaola pursued studies in composition at the Royal Conservatory in Madrid, Spain. Mr. Iznaola’s works include the guitar concerto Tiempo Muerto, the instrumental suite Musique de Salon, the mini-cantata for narrator and guitar, Frank’s Berries, and numerous solo guitar works, among which, the set of Ten Concert Etudes, have attracted considerable attention by fellow guitarists.

Mr. Iznaola’s distinguished performing career includes innumerable concert performances at venues like the Granada and Santander Music Festivals, the Madrid Autumn Festival, the National Auditorium in Madrid, the Gran Teatro de la Maestranza in Seville, the Wigmore Hall in London, the Grande Salle de L’Unesco in Paris, the Hercule Saal in Munich, the Ishibashi Memorial Hall in Tokyo, the Andrés Segovia Spring Festival with the Radio Television Orchestra in Madrid and Seville, the Merkin Concert Hall in New York, the Colorado Symphony Orchestra in Denver, among others.

His 13 recordings, issued by the Promus, Belter, Columbia and IGW labels, include the world premieres of such major works as Antonio Lauro’s legendary Sonata, and Antonio José’s 1933 Sonata, a monumental work which Iznaola rediscovered for the guitar repertoire. His latest CD, 1927 - Spanish Guitar Music from the time of Garcia Lorca, honors the centenary of the great Spanish poet with works by composers of his generation.

Mr. Iznaola’s publications Kitharologus - The Path to Virtuosity (now in its fifth edition), and On Practicing (in its forth edition), published by Mel Bay (USA), are rapidly being adopted as standard texts by the professional guitar community. The book Physiology of Guitar Playing was published by the University of Reading, England. His latest publication, The Concert Etudes (score & CD), was also recently published by Mel Bay.

JOAQUIN RODRIGO
b Sagunto, November 22, 1901
d Madrid, July 6, 1999

Tonight’s performance of Palillos y panderetas is the United States premier of this Rodrigo composition.

Palillos y panderetas, which translates to Castanets and tambourines, dates from 1982, the same year that Rodrigo wrote Concierto para una fiesta for guitar and orchestra, among the last great symphonic works he composed. It was commissioned by Enrique Tierno Galván, Mayor of Madrid, to be performed at the Second “City Clean-Up” Conference. The work’s three short movements, Prado del Manzanares, (Madrid’s river) Pastoral and Alegre mañana, are full of color and optimism in keeping with the ambiance suggested by its subtitle, “Music for an imaginary tonadilla,” a tonadilla being a one-act stage piece popular in eighteenth century Spain. This is another example of Rodrigo’s love of the music and culture of earlier times; in this case the traditions of old Madrid as depicted in the colorful majas and majos, often represented in the paintings by Goya. Its first performance was November 10, 1982 in Madrid. The dedication reads: to “Madrid, villa y corte.” —Notes courtesy of the Victoria and Joaquín Rodrigo Foundation Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez is certainly the most popular guitar concerto. Its unique, colorful style and melodic inspiration have rightly made it one of the most loved concertos for any instrument. Joaquin Rodrigo was born in Spain in 1901. Blind from the age of three, he learned music in his homeland province of Valencia until 1927, when he began a five-year period of study in Paris with Paul Dukas. The French impressionism of Dukas and the Spanish nationalism of his compatriot, Manuel de Falla, were to remain strong influences in Rodrigo’s music, which has its own distinctive style of dissonant elegance.

Concierto de Aranjuez was composed in 1939 and takes its inspiration from the royal town of Aranjuez at the turn of the 18th century. The alternation between two and three beat measures gives vitality to the outer movements. The middle movement is memorable with its famous melody first heard from the English horn.

JOHANNES BRAHMS
b Hamburg, May 7, 1833
d Vienna, April 3, 1897

To Brahms, the notion of being “the true successor to Beethoven” presented an awesome responsibility. After Schumann’s death, he moved to Vienna, also Beethoven’s home city, where he spent the rest of his life composing, conducting and occasionally appearing as concert pianist. He prepared for composing symphonies by writing various concertos, chamber music, the Serenades, and the Haydn Variations. It was not until 1876, when he was in his mid-forties, that he composed his first symphony. After which, three other superb symphonies followed.

Brahms’ Fourth Symphony was composed during the summers of 1884 and 1885 in the tiny Alpine town of Mürzzuschlag, where the summer is very brief. Always very self-critical, Brahms was especially anxious about the success of his last symphony. He sent an early draft to his dear friend, Elisabeth von Herzogenberg, and when her response was not immediately forthcoming, he impatiently (and falsely) figured her opinion to be negative. Indeed, the first performance in Vienna on October 25, 1885, with Brahms conducting, received a mixed audience response; however, even in Vienna, it gradually took hold. At the last orchestra concert that Brahms heard on March 7, 1897, just a month before his death, the Fourth Symphony met with tumultuous applause, demanding the frail, teary-eyed Brahms to come forth in his box to receive the ovation after each movement. He had suffered a terrible blow the year before when his dearest friend, Clara Schumann died. He never recovered from that shock and a chill he caught at her burial aggravated a long-standing cancer of the liver which killed him. This symphony remains as one of the truly great masterpieces in the symphonic repertoire.