{"id":4559,"date":"2016-07-13T13:19:58","date_gmt":"2016-07-13T20:19:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/?p=4559"},"modified":"2021-04-29T11:46:03","modified_gmt":"2021-04-29T18:46:03","slug":"album-review-cuban-guitarist-offers-new-insights-into-brouwer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/album-review-cuban-guitarist-offers-new-insights-into-brouwer\/","title":{"rendered":"Album Review: Cuban Guitarist Offers New Insights into Brouwer"},"content":{"rendered":"
From\u00a0the Summer 2016 issue of Classical Guitar<\/em> magazine <\/a>|\u00a0BY PAUL FOWLES<\/h6>\n

Though its catalog is unquestionably illustrious, the Naxos Laureate series has, by its very nature, a tendency to generate recordings that follow a formula. We all know how it is: Note-filled heavyweights from the highest echelons of the repertoire, performed with breathtaking precision and humbling velocity, alleviated by an isolated unknown work that\u2019s usually the commissioned set piece from the competition the performer won, included in order to get the deal. Cuban guitarist Al\u00ed Arango, victor in the 2014 Alhambra Competition, toes the line by including the competition piece by David del Puerto, but elsewhere unleashes a Naxos Laureate disc that\u2019s unequalled in its originality of thought. The only familiar item is Leo Brouwer\u2019s \u201cEl Decamer\u00f3n Negro,\u201d and even there Arango applies his individual stamp by taking up the composer\u2019s oft-spurned invitation to reshuffle the movements. More importantly, Arango delivers \u201cEl Decamer\u00f3n\u201d with a degree of precision and vitality that breathes new life into this much-loved contemporary classic.<\/p>\n

\"Ali\u0301<\/a> Small wonder, then, that Arango was picked to premiere Brouwer\u2019s Danzas Rituales y Festivas<\/em> at the composer\u2019s 75th birthday celebrations. The first series of this recently minted work opens the present disc and is without question another Brouwer success in the making. Restrained and genial in countenance, it is unmistakably the work of a composer who, in his mature years, no longer feels the need to grab anyone\u2019s ear.<\/p>\n

This understated Brouwer gem, in the company of four sophisticated Arango originals and an exhilarating finale from the Paco de Luc\u00eda legacy, makes for a compelling outing from a formidably talented guitarist of the new generation.\"\"<\/p>\n

You can preview tracks from the album below.<\/em><\/p>\n