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 Joaquin Rodrigo: Concierto de Aranjuez; Heitor Villa-Lobos: Concerto for Guitar; Manuel Ponce: Concierto del Sur. Sharon Isbin, guitar; New York Philharmonic, José Serebrier, conductor. (Warner Classics 60296) It may be the dead of winter, but Sharon Isbin's new recording of three Spanish guitar works evokes a toastier time and place. It was recorded last June after a series of engagements with the New York Philharmonic, in which the orchestra put on its white jackets, toted tropical trees into Avery Fisher Hall, and played summery, Spanish-flavored music under the moniker "Viva España." More importantly, these were the first concerts by a guitarist with the Philharmonic in 26 years and the orchestra's first-ever recording with a guitarist.
Isbin is responsible for a number of firsts herself. In 1989, she founded the guitar department at Juilliard and became its first professor of guitar. She has commissioned and premiered numerous works for her instrument. In 2001 she became the first classical guitarist to win a Grammy in 30 years, and in 2002 she won another. She is also perhaps the first woman to reach the top ranks of the solo classical guitar world. That said, Isbin has played the Rodrigo Concierto, a concert hall favorite, literally hundreds of times throughout her career and has recorded it twice before. Composed in 1939, the piece deftly solves the problem of how to wed the relatively small voice of the solo guitar to that of a full orchestra. Many of the best moments occur when Isbin enters into a give-and-take dialogue with Philharmonic musicians. In the finale, she engages in a dazzling musical conversation with several solo instruments, while in the second movement she accompanies fellow Juilliard faculty member Thomas Stacy's solo English horn with simple, unadorned chords. The concertos by Villa-Lobos and Ponce provide similarly fascinating examples of how composers address the question of balance between guitarist and orchestra. Ponce gives the instrument plenty of room to breath, with long solo passages and delicate orchestral textures. Villa-Lobos's Concerto, written for Andrés Segovia, puts the guitar and orchestra through a kaleidoscopic dialogue that culminates in a cadenza featuring a range of technical effects (harmonics, arpeggios, neck-sliding sequences, etc.). It's a brilliant conclusion to a well-conceived and superbly performed disc.John Corigliano: Pied Piper Fantasy; Katherine Hoover: Medieval Suite; Chen Yi: Golden Flute. Alexa Still, flute; New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, James Sedares, conductor. (Koch International Classics 7566) Like the guitar, the solo flute is an underdog in orchestral settings, lacking the major concerto repertoire enjoyed by its bigger orchestral cousins. Nevertheless, living composers such as John Corigliano have written highly idiomatic display pieces for the instrument, as this recording demonstrates.
Corigliano's Pied Piper Fantasy is a 38-minute, seven-movement tour de force for flute and orchestra. Commissioned by James Galway in 1981—a full decade before Corigliano joined the composition faculty at Juilliard, where he still teaches—it remains one of his most enduring works and shows him emerging as a master orchestrator. The piece also includes a theatrical component, requiring the soloist to don a Pied Piper costume and having the children in the audience leave their seats and join the piper as he leads them out of Hamelin. Indeed, a year ago this month, youngsters from Juilliard's Music Advancement Program (MAP) took on that role with Galway at a series of New York Philharmonic concerts. While lacking that visual touch, this recording, with the accomplished New Zealand flutist Alexa Still, happily captures the assorted gnawing and scurrying sounds, illustrated in sliding thirds, jittery repeated notes, and some high-pitched squeals of strings and woodwinds. The other selections on this CD have their individual charms. Chen Yi's The Golden Flute is a colorful evocation of the Chinese bamboo flute, while Katherine Hoover's Medieval Suite takes its inspiration from the music of 14th-century France.Mention this column at the Juilliard Bookstore to receive a 5-percent discount on this month's featured recordings. (In-store purchases only.) Brian Wise is a producer at WNYC radio and writes about music for The New York Times, Time Out New York, Opera News, and other publications.
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