History (based on materials from the Grove Dictionary of Music): Blind from the age of three, Spanish composer Joaquin Rodrigo (1901-1999) began his musical education at an early age, gradually progressing to studies at the Parisian Conservatoire and the Sorbonne. The early part of Rodrigo's life was spent almost exclusively in academician pursuits with only occasional compositions. However, when he returned to Spain in 1939 at the onset of the Second World War, he brought with him his first large-scale work which is presented in this case: the Concierto de Aranjuez, inspired by the gardens of the Palacio Real de Aranjuez. At that time Rodrigo was, it seems, a respected scholar but not an established maestro, a status which he attained with the triumphant premiere of the piece in question on the 9th of November, 1940, in Barcelona. Though the composer went on to compose 170 other works of more or less renown and attained numerous honors, including the de Falla Chair of Music at Complutense University (1947) and a membership at the Real Academia de Bellas Artes (1950), the Aranjuez would always remain the most recognizable achievement of Rodrigo's musical career, demonstrated by the conferment to Rodrigo's family of the hereditary title "Marqueses de los Jardines de Aranjuez" in 1992. Music: Rodrigo's music is a perfect representation of the neoclassical school which, in opposition to modernism, uses established traditional forms and a clear, harmonic language entrenched deep within the idiom of the composer's country. All of these qualities are fully demonstrated in the haunting adagio of the Aranjuez which is, indeed, a most remarkable piece of music. Other orchestral pieces by Rodrigo are, sadly, curiously lacking in the deep inspiration of the presented piece, providing some Spanish color but only occasionally recalling the dramatic power of the Aranjuez (composed, as his wife later declared in an autobiography, as a response to the devastation at the miscarriage of her first pregnancy). Even the Aranjuez itself is remarkably unbalanced, both the opening and the concluding sections of the work sounding trite in comparison to the mesmerizing central lament. A simple accompaniment of a repeated chord for the guitar and sustained gusts for the remaining orchestra, enriched by a number of graceful touches, such as the affecting descent of the violas (0:35), serves as the basis for the mourning main theme in two parts, passed between the English horn (0:14, 1:26) and the guitar (0:50, 2:03), the later lightly ornamenting the melody which is treated as an idee fixe during the whole movement. A brief crescendo, instigated by an upward figuration of the violins/violas (2:42), melts away, as a trill from the English horn (3:04) leads into a reflective cadential passage - a secondary theme as it were - for the guitar over a sighing motive in the strings. What follows then is a remarkable juxtaposition of the orchestra, demanding a return to the main theme (3:49, 4:04, 4:19), and the guitar, relentlessly continuing the lyric second motive which gradually begins to unravel (3:56, 4:10). The following section is an exposition of the main theme by solo guitar, developed in the manner of an echo (4:33-5:48). The orchestra's return, in a chilling tremor of the oboe/strings provokes a jagged, pain-infused ascending line from the soloist (5:57, 6:15). A crescendo is seemingly established (6:27), as a combination of the winds' flutter, lone chords of the guitar and the rising lines of the strings suggest a return to the main theme, however, the orchestra's outpouring dissolves into a single sustained note (6:37), accentuated by the oboe/bassoon, as a second solo for the guitar follows, the soloist playing the main theme in a wildly ornamented variant (6:50-7:47). A virtuoso cadenza develops from the theme (7:48-8:49), until, after a series of alternating statements by the orchestra and solo guitar (8:50), the movement's culmination is reached in a complete orchestral version of the principal melody, played primarily by the string section and the horns, while the remaining winds repeatedly state the familiar ascending figuration (8:58). The flute soon takes up the main theme in a most caressing manner (10:09), passing it, unfinished, to the guitar which presents an echo variation of the theme over the strings' sustained lines (10:23), as the guitar's voice fades away in a luminous string codetta. All in all, one of the most gratifying pieces of modern music. Score: Sadly, no complete set of sheet music for the presented piece can be found in open access at the moment. Recording: The 1994 Philips recording of the Aranjuez features a most gratifying performing team of guitarist Pepe Romero (of the Los Romeros ensemble) and the familiar Academy of St. Martin in the Fields under Sir Neville Marriner. Hope you'll enjoy =).