Program Note
Heitor Villa-Lobos
Heitor Villa-Lobos was a Brazilian composer,
a musician and classical guitarist. He was born on March 5, 1887 in Rio de Janeiro. Villa-Lobos is described as one of the foremost Latin American composers of the 20th century, whose music combines indigenous melodic and rhythmic elements with western classical music.
He composed numerous orchestral, choral and instrumental works. One of his works is
“The Concerto for Guitar and Small Orchestra” which was written in 1951. He died on November 17, 1959 in Rio de Janeiro and left his valuable works to the world. Heitor Villa-Lobos has become the best-known South American composer of all time.
The Concerto for Guitar and Small Orchestra
The Concerto for Guitar and Small Orchestra was the last work that Villa-Lobos wrote for the guitar
and was composed at the request of the Spanish guitarist, Andrés Segovia (1893–1987), to whom the score is dedicated.
Initially, in three movements and entitled Fantasia Concertante for Guitar and Orchestra,
Villa-Lobos later responded once again to a request from Segovia, added a cadenza between the second and third movements,
and changed the title to Concerto for Guitar and Small Orchestra.
Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco
Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco was an Italian composer, pianist, and writer.
He was born on April 3, 1895, in Florence, Italy.
In 1932, he first met the Spanish guitarist, Andrés Segovia (1893–1987), at the International Society of Contemporary Music Festival which was held in Venice. This meeting inspired
Castelnuovo-Tedesco to write for the guitar.
In 1939, he immigrated to the United States and became a film composer. He died in Los Angeles at the age of 72 in 1968.
He is known as one of the essential composers
for the guitar in the twentieth century with almost one hundred compositions for that instrument. Some of them were written and dedicated to Andrés Segovia, an enthusiast of his style.
Variations à travers les siècles
Behind the song
After Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco met Andrés Segovia at the festival of the International Society of Contemporary Music in Venice in 1932, Segovia had asked the composer to write guitar music for him.
Variations à travers les siècles was possibly Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s first work for guitar, written shortly after he had met Segovia.
When Segovia received the manuscript of the Variations from the composer, he exclaimed that it was the first time he had ever encountered a (non-guitarist) musician who immediately understood how to write for the guitar.
