Guitar 2024

Canadian-Italian singer Emily D’Angelo announces her upcoming second solo DG album freezing, which features seventeen songs drawn from folk tradition, art song and beyond. The mezzo-soprano offers a personal take on music that spans five centuries, ranging from songs by John Dowland and Henry Purcell; Rebecca Clarke, Zoltán Kodály, W.C. Handy and Philip Glass; to recent works by Randy Newman, Jeanine Tesori, Cecilia Livingston, “Adrian Ira” Kramer and US band Ween.

This rich set of music by J.S. Bach (or connected to him by attribution or publication) and transcribed for the guitar provides a stunning example of the versatility of the composer’s music, the unquestionable genius of which renders it universally successful on any instrument with polyphonic capabilities (solo string instruments included).

John W. Duarte was not only one of the most prolific composers for the solo classic guitar in the 20th century; he was also concerned with the instrument in an ensemble context. He made a lasting contribution to the concept and musical chemistry of the guitar quartet, a much-neglected feature until his innovations. This area of his creative work proved something of a goldmine for both professional quartets and educational settings where the guitar was taught as a serious instrument, worthy of deep study, and indeed for Summer Schools worldwide. In this the composer offered arrangements and original works of taste and delicacy, a hitherto unprecedented development in the expanding repertoire of the guitar.