Ariel Elijovich performing Angelo Gilardino's Sonata No. 2 "Hivern Florit"

This is a fun take on one of my favorite guitar sonatas.  "Hivern florit" roughly translates in English as "winter in bloom", if memory serves.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frYtsxiRJ6s

I've been wanting to blog through and analyze Gilardino's guitar sonatas for years but the last few years, even if I set aside the era of covid 19, have not been happy years for me and I only have so much I can do as a mere mortal.  However, if I have not managed to blog about Gilardino's sonatas that doesn't mean I'm giving up on the idea of getting to that project. 

But look how long it's been taking me to blog about Matiegka's sonatas!  I trust regular and long-time readers know that when I commit to a project I want to do the best job I can and not scrimp on details.  That might be a vice, actually. :)  

But I love this sonata and want to share another performance of it for folks who read the blog.  

I'm debating whether to have a spoilery or non-spoilery post about the Venture Bros movie, on a completely different topic. 

Angelo Gilardino: Sonata "Lettere a Fryderyk" (a.k.a. Guitar Sonata No. 6?)

There were five solo guitar sonatas by Angelo Gilardino up until 2014 and this one counts as the sixth.  
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hdACtobNQg

http://angelogilardino.com/1378-lettere-a-fryderyk/

as sixths go, Atanas Ourkouzounov has a Guitar Sonata No. 6, too.  

Angelo Gilardino: Sonata Mediterannea

Angelo Gilardino died at the start of 2022 and his death was depressing enough news for me that it was part of why I took a break from blogging as he was one of my favorite contemporary guitarist composers.  I still hope to write quite a bit more about his five magnificent guitar sonatas.  But if you've heard them you'll have an idea why I might balk at just rushing to say just anything about the works, which deserve more than just this or that saying.

Someone's posted the full score and a performance by Giulio Tampalini online.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xL7piemFMc

Right off the bat you'll hear and see Gilardino creates his textures by playing melodic lines against open strings.  When you commit to using open strings on the guitar you get a combination of quartal harmonies with tertian elements (EADGBE does that of necessity).  Gilardino wasn't the only guitarist composer to leverage open strings and quartal harmonies with conventional triadic elements.  Villa-Lobos played with open string sonorities plenty and the juxtaposition of tertian melodic lines against quartal accompaniment is central to the opening movement of Dusan Bogdanovic's gorgeous and surrealist Sonata No. 1.  All masters of the guitar, they were, and part of mastering the instrument is working with what are in the hands of an amateur nothing more than the rudimentary observation of what kinds of sounds you get if you just use the open strings for your accompaniment notes.

Obviously I'll have to write more about Gilardino as I can manage in the future. 

RIP Terry Teachout and Angelo Gilardino

Terry Teachout has died. He died this Thursday.

https://www.npr.org/2022/01/14/1073037473/terry-teachout-dies-critic

 I enjoyed reading Teachout's "About Last Night" blog for years and also appreciate his biography of Duke Ellington.  I learned of it through Ethan Iverson's interview and read Teachout's response noting that he appreciated that Iverson gave him some pushback on things he did say and not things he didn't. Let the reader understand.  

Also this week Angelo Gilardino, the great Italian guitarist composer, has died.

https://tgvercelli.it/si-spento-80-anni-angelo-gilardino-piu-grande-musicista-vercellese-dallinizio-del-900/

I might not be posting a ton at the blog for a while. The world of classical guitar has been immensely enriched by Gilardino's life and work and I'll have to write more about some of his work later this year but at the moment I think I might take a bit of a hiatus to collect my thoughts (and take a break from posting, for that matter). 

UPDATE 1-16-2022

some thoughts from Ted Gioia and Ethan Iverson (and Heather Sessler) about Terry Teachout.

It's worth mentioning, if only briefly, that Angelo Gilardino worked to further the music of Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, whose music for the guitar was conservative and "Hollywood" but in the best possible sense of the term, glowing sounds and actual tunes (I need to get around to blogging more about his work at some point, too, really).

Here's a sampling of some of Gilardino's work

Studi di virtuosità e di trascendenza

It would be too much to blog through the sixty studies!  I plan to blog through is five magnificent solo guitar sonatas later this year.  There needs to be more English-language writing about this titan of the classical guitar. 

Angelo Gilardino's Sonata di Lagonegro aka Sonata No. 5

Today's musical feature will be the five wonderful solo guitar sonatas composed by Angelo Gilardino, if you haven't followed the posts as they've gone up.

Sonata di lagonegro: I. Delle Campane
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9MC5VoGbfVc

Sonata di lagonegro: II. Lauda in Santa Maria degli Angeli
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8JEyxgYlnkc

Sonata di lagonegro: III. Levantina
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_OgO3JE17o

Angelo Gilardino's Sonata del Guadalquavir aka Sonata No. 4

Sonata del Guadalquivir: I. Memorias
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ffP6bjEozA

Sonata del Guadalquivir: II. Leyendas
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdbHK3aLf_w

Sonata del Guadalquivir: III. Lejanias
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6nQXQ_DmbI

Angelo Gilardino's Sonata Mediterranea aka Sonata No. 3

movement 1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zx32WlgKKuY

movement 2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOTrtMXfvEc

movement 3
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCJ-M1ThSjM

Angelo Gilardino's Guitar Sonata No. 2

Sonata No. 2 "Hivern florit": I. Allegretto semplice
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eqj1WfBLppk

Sonata No. 2 "Hivern florit": II. Andante molto tranquillo quasi adagio
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BN5f8ellrsU


Sonata No. 2 "Hivern florit": III. Allegro vivo e brillante
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrfcGBNQsKk

Angelo Gilardino's Guitar Sonata No. 1

Gilardino Guitar Sonata No. 1, i
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCKkmX_rpf4

Cristiano Porqueddu's performance

movement 1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ur-n69VlsSI&list=PLLx3zbQD-HD0KqVjYzx1w0sgkGgTOo9m-&index=32

movement 2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CemqmV7C8ys&index=33&list=PLLx3zbQD-HD0KqVjYzx1w0sgkGgTOo9m-

movement 3
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1ISnrcFrW4&list=PLLx3zbQD-HD0KqVjYzx1w0sgkGgTOo9m-&index=34

movement 4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzKDWDZv7-Q&list=PLLx3zbQD-HD0KqVjYzx1w0sgkGgTOo9m-&index=35

Angelo Gilardino: Sonata No. 2: 1. Allegretto Semplice

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8Hvuq9eIAU

For a considerably longer sonata form from contemporary literature this is the first movement from Angelo Gilardino's second guitar sonata. This is another cycle of sonatas (five in all) I hope to write about but for now I'll link to the first movement of Gilardino's second guitar sonata.