{"id":9298,"date":"2018-04-19T15:56:45","date_gmt":"2018-04-19T22:56:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/?p=9298"},"modified":"2018-05-04T15:02:39","modified_gmt":"2018-05-04T22:02:39","slug":"spanish-magic-recent-albums-from-jorge-caballero-and-kazu-suwa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/spanish-magic-recent-albums-from-jorge-caballero-and-kazu-suwa\/","title":{"rendered":"Spanish Magic: Recent Albums from Jorge Caballero and Kazu Suwa"},"content":{"rendered":"

Most weeks we take a peek at recent albums or sheet music releases. Here are three of the CDs that have come into the\u00a0Classical Guitar<\/em>\u00a0office recently.<\/p>\n

If you have a CD you\u2019d like to submit to us, here\u2019s our address:<\/p>\n

Classical Guitar
\n501 Canal Blvd. suite J
\nRichmond, CA 94804-3505<\/p>\n

Some of the albums we talk about online will be reviewed in the magazine, some not. But we want to at least mention most of them here. You can listen to some of these on various of streaming services, but we always encourage you to support the artists by actually\u00a0buying<\/em>\u00a0anything you like! Obviously we cannot research and report every outlet or online business where these albums are sold, so check your favorite places that sell CDs and downloads!<\/p>\n

To see our previous listings, scroll to the bottom of the page.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em>\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u2014Blair Jackson<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"
\nAlb\u00e9niz<\/strong><\/em>
\nJorge Caballero<\/strong>
\nGuitarCoop<\/p>\n

Here’s an album you should not miss! Jorge Caballero<\/a>, the extraordinary Peruvian virtuoso famous for the breadth of his repertoire, including tackling and mastering pieces that are notoriously difficult to play on guitar (such as Kazuhito Yamashita’s arrangements of works by Mussorgsky and Dvorak, and his own version of Berg’s Piano Sonata Op. 1<\/em>), shines brilliantly on this album devoted entirely to solo guitar arrangements of piano works by Isaac Alb\u00e9niz (1860\u20131909). Now, it’s certainly not unusual to hear guitar takes on\u00a0Alb\u00e9niz\u2014is there a Spanish “guitar” piece more played than Asturias<\/em>\/Leyenda,\u00a0<\/em>popularized by Segovia? That’s here, of course, under its actual title, Preludio <\/em>(or Pr\u00e9lude<\/em>), the opening work in\u00a0Alb\u00e9niz’s Chants D’Espagne <\/em>(or Cantos de Espa\u00f1a);\u00a0<\/em>the other titles were attached to the piece after the composer’s death. Caballero presents the entire five-part suite in his own arrangements\u2014his Preludio<\/em> is less flashy, perhaps a little slower, but also deeper<\/em> than some I’ve heard. It fits wonderfully on the album, especially in its slot following four works from Alb\u00e9niz’s Iberia<\/em> (which consisted of four books of three pieces), again in arrangements by Caballero.<\/p>\n

It’s amazing to consider what Caballero has done here. Most of the pieces he’s chosen have more commonly been played by guitar duos, or even trios\u2014fitting for the at times nearly orchestral complexity of Alb\u00e9niz’s writing, which is not that easy even for the ten fingers of a pianist with ready access to all those octaves. That’s why it made sense for John Williams and Julian Bream to play Bajo la Palmera<\/em> and\u00a0Evocaci\u00f3n <\/em>as a duo, and why Williams elected to record\u00a0El Albaic\u00edn<\/em>, fronting an orchestra. But Caballero has managed to create effective translations to solo guitar, without sacrificing too<\/em> much from the piano originals. In fact, I did a side-by-side piano-guitar comparison with three of the pieces; for example, listening first to Ricardo Vines’ 1930 piano recording of Oriental<\/em> (from Chants<\/em>), then immediately listening to Caballero’s transcription. Of course, the guitar version does not have quite the same drama or as powerful dynamic shifts, but it definitely capture the piece’s emotional\u2014and thoroughly Spanish\u2014essence, the full contour of the melody, and boasts enough beautifully executed ornamentation that it communicates its own distinct personality. And Caballero peppers many of these arrangements with perfectly employed harmonics that bring a magical delicacy to certain passages that even surpasses the piano.<\/p>\n

Of the ten pieces on the disc, only the concluding\u00a0Capricho Catal\u00e1n <\/em>is by another arranger (Michael Lorimer). The rest are Caballero’s, and full of imagination and virtuosic playing. The recording, by Brazilian engineer Ricardo Marui in 2015, is perfect. I know it’s only April, but I already know this is going to be one of my favorite albums this year!<\/p>\n

From Iberia:<\/em> Evocaci\u00f3n<\/em>, El Puerto<\/em>, El Albaic\u00edn,<\/em> M\u00e1laga<\/em>; From\u00a0Chants D’Espagne<\/em>: Preludio<\/em>, Oriental<\/em>, Bajo la Palmera<\/em>, C\u00f3rdoba<\/em>, Seguidillas<\/em>; From Espa\u00f1a<\/em>:\u00a0Capricho Catal\u00e1n<\/em><\/p>\n

So far, I haven’t found this album on any streaming services, but\u00a0Albeniz<\/em> is available for purchase from Guitar Salon International<\/a> and\u00a0GuitarCoop<\/a>; and videos of a few pieces are posted on YouTube<\/a>.<\/p>\n