guitar CONCERTO
Duration ca. 20' (2013)
Full version: 2.2.2.2/4.2.2(+1b.tbn)0/2perc/hp/str
Reduced version: 2.2.2.2/2.2.0.0/hp/1 perc./str
View Score
Jason Vieaux discusses Jonathan Leshnoff's Guitar Concerto, which he calls an exquisite and virtuosic addition to the repertoire.
Commissioned by the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. Co-commissioned by the Nashville Symphony Orchestra, Reno Philharmonic and Orquestra Sinfonica del Principado de Asturias.
Premiered by the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra conducted by Marin Alsop, soloist Manuel Barrueco, January 9 and 12, 2014.
Other performances: Orquestra Sinfonica del Principado de Asturias conducted by Andrew Grams, soloist Manuel Barrueco, Asturias, Spain, May 1-2, 2014; Nashville Symphony Orchestra conducted by Giancarlo Guerrero, soloist Manuel Barrueco, October 2-3, 2015; Reno Philharmonic conducted by Laura Jackson, soloist Manuel Barrueco, November 8 & 10, 2015; Nashville Symphony Orchestra conducted by Giancarlo Guerrero, soloist Jason Vieaux, Nashville, TN April 27-28, 2018.
One of the greatest additions to the guitar and orchestra repertoire in recent years.
—Giancarlo Guerrero, Music Director of the Nashville Symphony Orchestra
Still, as dazzling and exhilarating as the framing “Maestoso” and “Finale” movements are, it's the moving “Adagio” that speaks most powerfully on behalf of the composer. Performed at a stately tempo, its material exudes tenderness, the combination of strings and guitar here providing moments of exquisite pleasure.
—Textura, June 2019
The guitar concerto is a work of beauty and virtuosity, the lyrical writing and imitative exchanges between the guitar and orchestra are complimented with elegant orchestration…intense musical lines along with the elegant nature of the writing, especially in the rhythmic third movement.
—Bradford Werner, This is Classical Guitar, May 2019
The concerto is charming, lyrical and beautifully performed on this new Naxos release.
—James Jolly, The Listening Room by Gramophone, May 2019
Leshnoff’s orchestration was immensely colorful but also appropriately light and transparent, allowing it to support but not overwhelm the acoustic guitar. The writing for the solo instrument was fantastic—lyrical, virtuosic, tender, and passionate all at once.
—John Pitcher, American Record Guide, July/August 2018
In this introspective Adagio the guitar's gently questioning melodic lines emerge against alternately shimmering and aching chords. It's an exquisite reverie, and it inspired beautiful playing on Thursday from both soloist Manuel Barrueco—the concerto's dedicatee—and the ensemble. The outer movements deliver rewards as well. The opening one grabs attention with its initial, arcing phrase, which gets a vigorous, colorful workout from guitar and ensemble alike... the concerto makes a worthy, welcome entry into the repertoire. It reconfirms that Leshnoff... with a presence far beyond Baltimore, is an assured composer who has a lot to say and a directly communicative way of saying it.
—Tim Smith, The Baltimore Sun, January 2014
Program Note
“Every instrument has its own soul or essence,” comments Leshnoff. He admits that the guitar, with its idiosyncratic fingerings, posed special challenges for him. His Concerto was the product of “a close collaboration” with Barrueco, whom Leshnoff reports “was remarkably generous and patient working through ideas with me. It really helped that we lived in the same city — this Concerto was really made in Baltimore.”
With its delicate sonority, the guitar is a notoriously difficult instrument to balance against a modern symphony orchestra. Leshnoff opted to have the instrument slightly amplified, but he also took extreme care with the orchestration. Rarely does the full ensemble play together with the guitar.
The Concerto is structured in the traditional three movements. Angular, unsettled, and using irregular rhythms, movement one (Maestoso, Allegro) is fast, witty, and very virtuosic for the soloist. The opening motive for the guitar — an upward leap to a sustained note, followed by a gentle stepwise descent — comes back at climactic moments in all three movements.
Only strings, harp, and two bowed vibraphones/crotales accompany the soloist in the Adagio second movement, which bears the title of the sixth letter of the Hebrew alphabet, “vav,” associated with “humility” or, in Hebrew, “Hod.” It is a movement designed to allow the guitar to realize its special capacity to be quiet and expressive, and indeed, the soloist here is a poignant, lyrical singer against a haze of slow-moving string chords.
Marked “lively,” the finale provides a counterbalance to the gravitas of the second movement. Filled with irregular rhythms and a sense of fun, it has the feeling of a Spanish dance, a particularly idiomatic choice for this solo instrument.
- Program note by Janet Bedell