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MANUEL BARRUECO | GuitarSunday, October 13, 2019 | 7pmHerbst Theatre

Music of Spain & Cuba

LUIS DE NARVÁEZ Three Pieces from the Renaissance Cancion del Emperador Baxa del Contrapunto Guardame las Vacas

HÉCTOR ANGULO Yoruba Chants from Cuba I. Asokere II. Suayo III. Iyá mi ilé IV. Borotití V. Asokere II VI. Iyá mo dupé VII. Yeye bi obi tosuo VIII. E Iekua IX. Asokere III

IGNACIO Cuban DancesCERVANTES El Velorio (The Wake) La Celosa (The Jealous One) Mensaje (A Message) Adios a Cuba (Farewell to Cuba) Los Tres Golpes (The Three Knocks)

JULIÁN ORBÓN Prelude and Dance

INTERMISSION

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ENRIQUE La Maja de Goya (Tonadilla)GRANADOS A la Cubana, Opus 36 Allegretto Un Poco Vivo

ISAAC ALBÉNIZ From “Suite Española,” Opus 47 Castilla Cuba Aragón

FRANCISCO TÁRREGA Three Transcriptions F. Chueca /J. Valverde Jota de los Ratas, from the zarzuela La Gran Vía S. Iradier La Paloma, Habanera R. Calleja Gómez Tango de la Cadera, from the zarzuela El Ratón

San Francisco Performances acknowledges the generosity of Concert Partners:Dr. Daniel J. Fourrier Jr.; S.B. Hadley Wilson

Manuel Barrueco is represented by Tonar Music ManagementP.O. Box 4466, Timonium, MD 21094 tonarmusic.com

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ARTIST PROFILESan Francisco Performances presents Manuel Barrueco for the 15th time. He made his San Francisco Performances’ debut in 1989 and last returned in March 2016. Mr. Barrueco was SF Performances’ first Guitarist-in-Resi-dence (1997–2001).

Legendary guitarist Manuel Barrueco is internationally recognized as one of the most important guitarists of our time. His unique artistry has been continually de-scribed as that of a superb instrumentalist and a superior and elegant musician, pos-sessing a seductive sound and uncommon lyrical gifts.

His career has been dedicated to bringing the guitar to the main musical centers of the world, and his commitment to contem-porary music and to the expansion of the guitar repertoire has led him to collabora-tions with many distinguished composers.

Barrueco has appeared on a wide array of television programs including CBS Sun-day Morning, A&E’s Breakfast with the Arts, and Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood. He was featured in a Lexus car commercial, and his work in music inspired Michael Law-rence’s biographical documentary: Manuel Barrueco: A Gift and a Life.

Barrueco’s recording of Rodrigo’s Conci-erto de Aranjuez with conductor and tenor Plácido Domingo was cited as the best re-cording of that piece in Classic CD Maga-zine. He received a Grammy nomination for “Best Instrumental Soloist Performance” for his Solo Piazzolla, the first recording to be released on Tonar Music. Sounds of the Americas in collaboration with the Cuarteto

Latinoamericano received a Latin Grammy Award for Inca Dances by Gabriela Lena Frank. Tárrega! and Medea, which includes Barrueco’s arrangement of the ballet by flamenco guitarist Manolo Sanlúcar, both received a Latin Grammy nomination for “Best Classical Album.” His latest release is Fernando Sor: The Beethoven of the Guitar.

Barrueco began playing the guitar at the age of eight in his native Cuba and he immigrated with his family to the United States in 1967 as a political refugee. He completed his advanced studies at the Pea-body Conservatory, where he now shares his love for music with a small number of exceptionally gifted young guitarists from all over the world.

Manuel Barrueco is the recipient of the United States Artist Fontanals Fellowship for Artistic Excellence.

PROGRAM NOTES

Music of Spain and Cuba

King Ferdinand of Aragón and Queen Isabelle of Castilla—the Catholic Mon-archs of Spain—sponsored the travels of Christopher Columbus who discovered Cuba in 1492, and after which Cuba be-came a Spanish colony. Even after the island gained its independence from Spain, the ties between the two countries remained strong and the immigration of Spaniards to the island continued, and Cubans often refer to Spain as the madre patria (motherland). The strong connec-tion between these two countries is the basis for this program.

While the conquistadores were coloniz-ing the Americas for the Spanish crown, the vihuela, a precursor of the guitar, was the instrument of choice in the courts of Spain. Luis de Narváez (c. 1490–c. 1547) was a highly regarded Spanish renais-sance composer and vihuelist. The pieces that begin this program are extracted from his most noted six-volume publica-tion, Los seys libros del delphín, published in 1538. The last piece, Guardame las Vacas, is believed to be the earliest known exam-ples of the variations form.

During the colonization period, the in-digenous Cuban population almost dis-appeared from the island because of the abusive treatment and European diseases leading to the import of African slaves. Cuban composer Héctor Angulo (1932–2018) gathered a group of songs they brought from Africa to create his Yoruba

Chants from Cuba; “Yoruba” being the Af-rican language spoken and the people of the area comprised in part by what is Ni-geria today.

These two influences, Spanish and Af-rican, would eventually blend to create a uniquely Cuban music, a criollo (creole) style. The Cuban Dances of Ignacio Cer-vantes (1847–1905) are one of the great-est examples of this new style that would remain a source of inspiration for future composers. Such is the case with the Pre-ludio y Danza by Julián Orbón (1925–1991), a Cuban composer born in Asturias, Spain.

The turn of the century was a very trau-matic time for Spain; they lost Cuba, the last of their American colonies. Many of the most important Spanish composers at that time wrote pieces with reference to the lost island and this program includes the La Maja de Goya and A la Cubana by En-rique Granados (1867–1916), whose father was Cuban.

Three pieces are included by Isaac Al-béniz (1860–1909) from “Suite Española”: Castilla, Aragón, and Cuba, as a final nod to the Catholic Monarchs, Ferdinand of Aragón and Isabelle of Castilla.

The program concludes with three transcriptions by Francisco Tárrega (1852–1909): two are zarzuelas, Jota de los Ratas and Tango de la Cadera; and La Paloma, which is a beautiful song in a habanera rhythm–the characteristic Cuban dance that the Spanish sailors brought back with them from their travels to Cuba.

Jota de los Ratas: Federico Chueca (1846–1908) and Joaquín Valverde (1846–1910)

La Paloma: Sebastián Iradier (1809–1865)

Tango de la Cadera: Rafael Calleja Gómez (1870–1938)

—Program Notes by Manuel Barrueco