Maurice Ravel - Miroirs (La vallée des cloches, Pagodes, Alborada del gracioso)
Manuel De Falla – Homenaje pour le tombeau de Debussy for guitar
Claude Debussy- Estampes (La Soirée dans Grenade, Pagodes, Jardins sous la pluie)
Manuel de Falla - Cuatro piezas españolas (Aragonesa, Cubana, Montañesa, Andaluza)
Guitarp Duo is proud to present its transcriptions of piano works for guitar and harp.
In the lives of the musicians included in this program, the Pyrenean mountains (which separate France and Spain) seem to become a metaphysical mirror: a huge reflective surface in which one discovers oneself and one's own musical tradition through the gaze of the persons on the other side.
Likewise Manuel De Falla's research on Andalusian primitive musical roots is perfectly mirrored in some of Claude Debussy's compositions; hereby expressed in Manuel De Falla’s own words:
”We are far from these serenades, madrilanos and boleros by which the makers of supposedly Spanish music formerly regaled us; here it is truly Andalusia, that he (Debussy) presents to us. In 'La soirée dans Grenade' we could say that the singing is syllabic, while in 'La puerta del vino' it is presented embellished with those typical ornaments from Andalusian coplas that we call Cante jondo. The use of this procedure, also found in 'Sérénade interrompue', is sketched out in the second theme of the 'Danse profane' (for harp and orchestra). This shows us what degree of knowledge of the most subtle variants of our popular songs Debussy had.”
It is hard to believe that Claude Debussy was in Spain only for a few hours in his entire life, i.e. in San Sebastian to watch a bullfight. However, he had known Manuel De Falla for some years and, in 1909, he had managed to convince his publisher Durand to release ‘Cuatro piezas españolas’. For Manuel de Falla that was more than enough. When asked to write a tribute in dedication of the deceased Claude Debussy, Manuel De Falla did not hesitate to use the metaphysical mirror again: placed before Debussy's work, 'Homenaje pour le tombeau de Claude Debussy' for solo guitar, with its habanera rhythm and quotations from 'La Soirée en Grenade', reflects once more the instrument, which so clearly inspired Debussy's 'Sérénade interrompue'.
Maurice Ravel's connections with Spain go back to his mother, of Basque origin, who met her husband and Maurice's future father in Madrid. The composer did not set foot in Spain until later in life: ”I do not know Madrid. In fact I'm being rather ungrateful since, without Madrid, I probably wouldn't exist. My parents met in Madrid. My father was a railroad engineer of French nationality and my mother was Basque. She used to lull me to sleep singing guajiras. Perhaps it's because of this link, that I feel so attracted to Spain and its music.”
Both Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel brilliantly included the harp in their compositions and subsequently set a benchmark for all composers who thereafter wrote for this instrument. Inspired by their model, Consuelo Giulianelli adapted piano and orchestral writings to the harp part of Guitarp Duo’s program. The adaptation of these compositions to the two plucked instruments was long and laborious: overcoming the limitations imposed by these two instruments required many adjustments and new versions before achieving the final one.
