El Bohemio: Agustín Barrios

by Thibaut Garcia

Overview

Although John Williams recorded a wonderful album of it in the 1990s, the guitar music of Agustin Barrios has been underexposed except for a few pieces that turn up as encores. This is a shame, for his music is not really like that of any other Latin American guitar composer. It embodies a deep fusion of vernacular music with European influences, and it has an unusual religious strain. The vernacular influences heard on this superb release by guitarist Thibaut Garcia include not only broadly popular dances like the waltz, the mazurka, and the Brazilian maxixe but also specifically Paraguayan folk music. Transcriptions of Chopin, Beethoven, and Schumann break up the program, and one of Barrios' most famous pieces, the three-movement, Bachian La Catedral, stands at the album's pinnacle. The religious works are both instrumental and spoken, and there is one piece that incorporates Barrios' own poetry, with the titular poem read by Orlando Rojas. There is a certain mood of mystery that adds an X factor to Barrios' music, and it is intensified here by the inclusion of a 1928 recording of Barrios himself. His playing seems reflected in Garcia's own, and that is truly all to the good. ~ James Manheim

Product Details

Release Date:	08/16/2024
Label:	Erato
UPC:	5054197726170
Rank:	186495

Tracks

1. Un sueño en la floresta
2. Aire de zamba
3. Mazurka appassionata
4. Prélude in C minor, Op. 28 No. 20
5. Una limosnita por el amor de Dios
6. Maxixe
7. Danza paraguaya
8. Vidalita
9. Sonata quasi una fantasia No. 14, Op. 27 No. 2 "Moonlight"~I. Adagio sostenuto
10. Las abejas
11. Julia Florida
12. Villancico de Navidad
13. Vals, Op. 8 No. 3
14. Vals, Op. 8 No. 4
15. Confesión
16. Choro da saudade
17. Profesión de fé
18. Preludio en Do menor
19. Kinderszenen, Op. 15 No. 7 Träumerei
20. La catedral~I. Preludio saudade
21. La catedral~II. Andante religioso
22. La catedral~III. Allegro solemne
23. Caazapá (Aire popular paraguayo)

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Thibaut Garcia   Primary Artist,Guitar
Orlando Rojas   Primary Artist,Featured Artist
Agustin Barrios-Mangore   Guitar

Technical Credits

Sue Baxter   Liner Note Translation
Agustin Barrios-Mangore   Text,Arranger,Composer,Liner Notes
Spoken Word   Composer
Simon Fowler   Photography
Benjamin Valette   Liner Notes
Thibaut Garcia   Liner Notes
Armen Doneyan   Photography
Birgit Spalt   Liner Note Translation
Frederic Chopin   Composer
Ludwig van Beethoven   Composer
Robert Schumann   Composer
Orlando Rojas   Narrator,Recitation
Hughes Deschaux   Mixing,Editing,Engineer,Mastering,Recording Producer
Alain Lanceron   Executive Producer