Rodrigo: Concierto de Aranjuez; Villa-Lobos: Concerto for guitar; Ponce: Concierto del sur

One tiny mistake

The only regret is that in the liner
notes, the names of composers Manuel Ponce
and Heitor Villa-Lobos are misslabeled in their pictures
thought you should know that; otherewise
the recording is great outstanding work
of Isbin and the New Yorkers, Serebrier is
just as great as always... March 9, 2007

Concierto de Aranjuez

Wanted the concert from Jackson Hole. This isn't it. Not so hot. January 23, 2007

A very solid recording

Sharon Isbin gives a phenominal performance on this album. All three concertos are excecuted very well. One of the biggest things that I enjoy about Aranjuez on this CD is that the guitar never gets covered up by the orchestra. I have listened to recordings of Aranjuez and not known that certain passages were even in the guitar part until I saw someone perform the concerto live. This is a great recording because it gives you three essential guitar concertos on one recording executed by world class musicians.

The Rodrigo concerto is without a doubt the most important and famous composition involving a guitar in the entire classical repertory. However, of the three concertos on this recording, Aranjuez is probably the weakest one on the disc. Isbin's tone gets a little to naily and clicky sometimes on this piece. Some of the runs in the first movement are a little sloppy and the cadenza in the second movement is a little over dramatic and the climax of the cadenza is very harsh. However, from the standpoint of sheer musical interpretation, it is probably one of the best interpretations of Aranjuez I've ever hear. Isbin adds little details to the piece that make it much more exciting.

The Villa-Lobos is very exciting. It seems that Isbin cleans up her technique a little by this point. The Ponce is brilliant as well. Words cannot describe the amazing execution of these pieces. I also cannot give as much critism to these pieces because I don't know them as well as the Rodrigo. Overall, this is a very solid recording. It is probably the best classical guitar recording of the year. November 13, 2005

Recommended

Superlative version of the "Concierto de Aranjuez". The only caveat is a few too many fireworks in a cadenza in the otherwise beautiful second movement. Since it is slightly overwrought, though this album is a must for guitar lovers, it shouldn't be the only recording of this piece in one's collection. Try balancing it with the less emotional Christopher Parkening version. July 15, 2005

Worthy of a Grammy nomination, at the very least!?!

I'm sure that Sharon Isbin does not exactly live for Grammy Awards, although they certainly don't hurt a performer's career. However, it is astonishing to me that her collaboration in this recording with the New York Philharmonic under the baton of Jose Serebrier was not seen fit to merit at least a nomination for the 2005 awards. I'm sure that all of the nominees and the winner (announced the previous night) gave fine performances, but they could not have been any more compelling than this one.

I've heard many recordings of classical guitar with orchestra, and none that I have heard surpass this one. It is true that Isbin made a previous recording of the Rodrigo in 1989 with Lawrence Foster and the Lausanne Chamber Orchestra that received critical acclaim and that Rodrigo himself praised her performance then as among the very best. However, that earlier recording contained one major flaw: the guitar was apparently not miked separately from the orchestra. As a result, the orchestra often covered her playing to an annoying degree. (If the guitar did have its own miking, the engineers did not bother to use it when they created the master.)

The current recording of the Rodrigo has all of the artistry of that first recording and none of its defects. The presence of both guitar and orchestra is, indeed, intimate. As a result, so much more of her interplay with the orchestra, as well as her unmatched range of color and dynamics, not to say technical brilliance, stand out brilliantly.

Sharon is, perhaps, unique among guitarists recording today in coming closest to the expressive range found only in Segovia, even to the point of almost matching his apparently unmatchably warm vibrato. And Segovia unfortunately never had a recording this magnificent in detail and presence to pass on to us. If you consider that Segovia is never known to have played Rodrigo's "Concierto De Aranjuez," then I would not hesitate in suggesting that this recording gives you an excellent idea of how he might have played it (along with more of his unique vibrato).

The other two works on the recording are equally brilliant. The Villa-Lobos surprises (I had not heard it before), and the Ponce, again, is a very close match to Segovia's own matchless recording of that piece.

In truth, Sharon Isbin brings her own unique qualities, including a steadier sense of tempo that stands apart from Segovia's famously self-determining (and remarkably effective) tempi. With more recordings like this, and a personal and professional generosity that stands apart, her name may yet be uttered in the same breath as that of the formerly unsurpassable Segovia.

So, what did happen to that Grammy nomination? February 14, 2005

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