Rodrigo: Concierto de Aranjuez
and works by Francisco Coll & Pete Harden
Jacob Kellermann, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Norrbotten NEO, Conductor
The London Philharmonic is at its best here, accompanying Kellerman with glorious shimmering textures in a programme centred around Spanish guitar works old and new, many with a flamenco shift.
Rodrigo: Concierto de Aranjuez
and works by Francisco Coll & Pete Harden
Jacob Kellermann, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Norrbotten NEO, Conductor
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The London Philharmonic is at its best here, accompanying Kellerman with glorious shimmering textures in a programme centred around Spanish guitar works old and new, many with a flamenco shift.
About
When guitarist Jacob Kellermann and conductor Christian Karlsen devised the present programme, one inspiration was the legendary jazz album Sketches of Spain on which Miles Davis performed arrangements of Spanish folk music, along with a version of the Adagio from Joaquín Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez. Rodrigo’s work is the perfect opening to Kellermann’s and Karlsen’s project, intended to conjure up Spain ‘as if through a prism – as a concept rather than a place’. In order to achieve this they have enlisted the help of Francisco Coll and Pete Harden, who have each contributed a concertante work. With Turia, Coll has returned to his roots, naming the work after the river that once flowed through his (and Rodrigo’s) hometown Valencia. His most ‘flamenco-coloured’ work so far ‘evoke(s) the light and the respective shadows’ of Spain. Turia is followed by two classics of Spanish music: Manuel de Falla’s Homenaje for solo guitar and Evocación by Isaac Albéniz, here in an arrangement for ensemble by Christian Karlsen. Pete Harden who, with his British background and affinity to jazz and non-classical tradition, provides a voice from the outside. His Solace and Shimmer makes use of the series of chords that underpins Rodrigo’s Adagio (and Miles Davis’s Sketches), describing the work as ‘an impressionist ode to dry, southern European heat.’ Kellermann is supported by the London Philharmonic Orchestra (in Concierto de Aranjuez) and the seven members of Norrbotten NEO.
Contents and tracklist
- Jacob Kellermann (guitar), Sue Böhling (cor anglais)
- London Philharmonic Orchestra
- Christian Karlsen
- Jacob Kellermann (guitar)
- Norrbotten NEO
- Christian Karlsen
- Jacob Kellermann (guitar)
- Jacob Kellermann (guitar)
- Norrbotten NEO
- Christian Karlsen
- Jacob Kellermann (guitar)
- Norrbotten NEO
- Christian Karlsen
Spotlight on this release
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Awards and reviews
April 2021
The London Philharmonic is at its best here, accompanying Kellerman with glorious shimmering textures in a programme centred around Spanish guitar works old and new, many with a flamenco shift.
March 2021
Even in Rodrigo’s courtly Concierto de Aranjuez, the spirit and sometimes the substance of flamenco are never far away...Kellerman, Karlsen and the LPO treat the Rodrigo as new music. There is room for neither sentiment nor sentimentality, not even in the Adagio. The relationship between soloist and orchestra is the dialectic of the bullfight. This quality is accentuated in Francisco Coll’s Turia.
17th January 2021
This Scandi quest for Spain begins with Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez, its eloquence beautifully conveyed by the Swedish conductor and soloist...Pete Harden’s Solace and Shimmer is based directly on Rodrigo’s harmony.
14th January 2021
Like Rodrigo, Coll was born in Valencia, and Turia is named after the dry river bed that snakes through the city...Coll’s prodigious melodic and rhythmic invention, and his remarkable ear for colour, are dazzling enough on their own terms.