Ansgar Krause

For his guitar laureate recording, Croatian-born Lovro Peretic has selected a panoramic programme that reaches back to the 18th century and forward to modern times. Of the two Scarlatti sonata arrangements one is by Peretic who has also transcribed a Brahms Intermezzo into a poignant lullaby. His performance of Karel Craeyvanger’s Weber homage, reveals the work’s variety and expressiveness. He also plays a sensually evocative piece by Barrios Mangore, and two barely known works by Debussy. Peretic ends the recital with Henze’s characterful Second Sonata on Shakespearean Characters.

The universal appeal of the music of Johannes Sebastian Bach is such that most musicians, regardless of their instrument, long to play it. As a consequence, his works are constantly being arranged for other instruments – following a practice that Bach himself excelled at, repeatedly reworking his own music as well as that of others. A case in point are the four so-called lute suites, all of which now belong to the standard repertoire of most concert guitarists. To what extent they were originally composed for a plucked instrument has always been a matter of contention and has given rise to many hypotheses.

Irene Kalisvaart was awarded the highest prize at the National Competition for Young Guitarists in Amsterdam at the age of 17. She studied with Jorge Oraison in Rotterdam, and continued with Ansgar Krause and Hubert Käppel at the Musikhochschule Köln where she finished her studies with distinction. She then went on to complete the ‘concert exam’ with Hubert Käppel in 2001. In between and thereafter she received numerous scholarships, international prizes and awards. Valuable musical mentors and masterclasses include Darko Petrinjak, Laura Young, Dale Kavanagh, Zoran Dukić, Àlex Garrobé, Pablo Márquez, Marco Socías, Thomas Müller-Pering, Aniello Desiderio and David Russell.