SKU: DZ.DZ-4272

ISBN 9782898521898.

En septembre 2018, le guitariste Toby McWilliams a commandé à Cruz l’écriture d’une pièce solo en trois mouvements après avoir entendu ses Five Pieces in C dans l’émission de radio internationale Classical Guitar Alive. McWilliams a demandé que le premier mouvement soit en forme sonate-allegro, suivi de deux autres pièces reflétant les choix de tempo d’une sonatine en trois mouvements typique. Comme c’est le cas pour la plupart des œuvres de Cruz, cette Sonatine a été achevée en tant que musique pure, sans programme sous-jacent. Cependant, dans sa quête de trouver des titres autres que des indications de tempo, Cruz a extrait trois mots de la correspondance entre lui-même et McWilliams qui, ensemble, ajoutent une touche personnelle à la collection tout en suggérant une progression des événements d’une journée imaginaire.

Un point d’intérêt dans le premier mouvement, le thème A : Cruz commence sur l’accord IV et évite intentionnellement d’utiliser un accord I tout au long de la pièce. Bien que la section B commence dans la tonalité de dominante, elle se dirige rapidement vers un centre tonal de ré majeur.

Festival (3ème mouvement) utilise un thème d’ouverture bitonal : mi majeur dans la voix supérieure tandis que la ligne de basse utilise mi mineur.

In September of 2018, guitarist, Toby McWilliams commissioned Cruz to write a three-movement guitar solo after hearing his Five Pieces in C on the internationally syndicated radio show, Classical Guitar Alive. McWilliams requested the first movement to be in sonata-allegro form followed by two other pieces that reflect the tempo choices of a typical three-movement sonatina. As is the case with most of Cruz’s music, this Sonatina was completed as music written for music’s sake. However, in his quest to find titles other than tempo markings, Cruz plucked three words from the correspondence between himself and McWilliams that together, add a personal touch to the collection while suggesting a progression of an imaginary day’s events.

A point of interest in the first movement, A theme: Cruz begins on the IV chord and intentionally avoids using a proper I chord throughout. While the B section does begin in the dominant key, it moves quickly towards a D major tonal center.

Festival (3rd movement) uses a bitonal opening theme: E major in the top voice while the bass line uses E minor.

SKU: FG.55011-324-4

ISBN 9790550113244.

Quadri Morandi (2014) ties together two essential themes of Kai Niminen's (b. 1953) compositional style: guitar and a subject inspired by Italy. The strong presence of the guitar in his works is natural since he is in an actively performing guitarist himself, and guitar works indeed play a significant role in his oeuvre. Moreover, he has written plenty of orchestral music; for instance two symphonies, numerous concertos, and chamber music. In the field of Finnish music he is a composer who can be characterized as free from any specific school or style. In his musical language, free tonal in essence, one can detect traces of Impressionism, Neoromanticism and even Expressionism at times, but he is also willing to employ more recent 20th-century stylistic devices. Nieminen has mentioned that he finds himself very similar to Japanese Toru Takemitsu both musically and in thought.

Mediterannean culture and Italy especially have been close to Nieminen's heart ever since he first visited the country and appeared in the jury of the international Fernando Sor guitar competition in 1981. He has composed a great number of works which refer to Italian landscapes or artists. The work Quadri Morandi (Morandi's pictures) is written in four movements. It has at its centre the painter Giorgio Morandi (1890-1964), who is known as a master of still lifes and landscapes painted in a plain manner and is subdued colours. Their atmosphere typically reflects a calm spirit. This is the third guitar work that nieminen has written for Kleemola.

It is easy to find a counterpart for the encaptivating realm of Morandi's art in Nieminen's clear and pure expression. The titles and expression markings also include several references to Morandi. For example, in the opening movement Prelude the words la Natura morta (still life) appear as an additional note on the chord sequence following the freely flowing opening section. At the end of the movement one can hear rhythmic motif coloured with flageolets that repeats the syllables of the painter's name: Gior-gio Moran-di. A similar motif can be heard at the end of the second movement Quasi cadenza. The tranquilly breathing third movement Paesaggio (landscape) creates an illusion of landscape by imitating the echo of monastery bells (come campane del monastero) and at the same time refers to il monaco (the monk), the name by which Morandi was often called. The final movement Ritratto (Portrait) is the most extensive of all the movements and can be seen, with its recurring motifs, as a reflection of the stable yet subtly varying elements of Morandi's art. The work ends with the rhythmic motif that once more echoes Morandi's name, like signature.