Search - Mozart;Moorhead :: Adagio

This debut CD is a collection of mostly new guitar works beginning with Sergio Assad s fiery and virtuosic Fantasia Carioca, composed in 1994 as a celebration of the city of Rio de Janeiro. The contemplative and nostalgic Jeff Buckley Requiem (2007), by French guitarist-composer Denis Mortagne, was written in memory of the New York underground musical icon who died tragically in 1997. In sharp contrast, Spatula (2000) is a lighthearted pastiche with seemingly disparate elements of Spanish guitar music, bluegrass, and a Cuban habanera, scrambled together by New York composer David Mallamud. Adagio, K. 540, a work originally for piano (and the only non-contemporary piece on this recording), was beautifully transcribed for guitar by Benjamin Verdery. Written in Italy in 1984, the first of Nuccio D Angelo s Due Canzoni Lidie explores unusual sonorities with the Lydian mode and also uses space as a compositional element. The concluding work, Robert Beaser s Shenandoah (1995), is based on the traditional American folksong by the same name. Fragments of the original melody are heard throughout the piece within rich harmonies and a variety of guitar effects, yet full quotations of the melody occur only three times.