Luca Romanelli - Leo Brouwer - Elogio Guitar Works (Estudios Sencillos, Elogio de la Danza, El Decameron Negro) (2019)

All of the Estudios sencillos represent, in a few lines of music, the stylistic evolution of Leo Brouwer throughout his compositional itinerary. The first series of ten pieces, conceived as a pedagogical study of particular difficulties, was written in 1971 and still embodies the Cuban influences of the early Brouwer. Starting with the very first, which had been largely sketched in the early Sixties, and in which the study of syncopations against a bass is joined to a typical South-American rhythm, all of the Studies focus on the challenges which the students may face when confronting a style markedly different from that of the simple tunes or regular arpeggios found in the teaching methods hitherto used – and which dated back from the early nineteenth century; this does not apply, of course, to the concert etudes written for the professional performers.
For Brouwer, in all of his musical aesthetics, it was crucial to find what he called “the magical note”: i.e. a keystone passage or modulation expressing a poetical moment (thus attempting not to leave the interpretation in the hands of mere technique or mechanism), as well as the importance of thinking his music more in terms of intensity than of speed. Thus, he leaves room for the player’s interpretation of the performance tempo, while wishing that performers will not transform his music into a mere finger gymnastics.
Within the series of the Etudes, a single technical difficulty is encountered in each piece, so that the pupil will have to deal with a single problem: the syncopations in Etude 1, chorale-playing with a balance in the voices in Etude 2, a quick succession of triplets in nos. 3 and 7, arpeggios with a hidden tune to reveal in no. 6, diminished chords in no. 5 and so on. The beauty of these Etudes is also found in the freshness and in the simple style which does not permit any distraction: thus, every Etude immediately immerses us in its aural world with no intermissions.

Track List:
01. Estudios sencillos: No. 1, Movido
02. Estudios sencillos: No. 2, Coral: Lento
03. Estudios sencillos: No. 3, Rapido
04. Estudios sencillos: No. 4, Comodo (Allegretto)
05. Estudios sencillos: No. 5, Allegretto (Monetine)
06. Estudios sencillos: No. 6
07. Estudios sencillos: No. 7, Lo màs rapido possible
08. Estudios sencillos: No. 8, Tranquillo
09. Estudios sencillos: No. 9, Scherzo
10. Estudios sencillos: No. 10
11. Danza Caracteristica
12. Danza del Altipiano
13. Elogio de la Danza: No. 1, Lento
14. Elogio de la Danza: No. 2, Ostinato
15. Nuevos Estudios Sencillos: No. 1, Omaggio a Debussy: Tempo di Giga
16. Nuevos Estudios Sencillos: No. 2, Omaggio a Mancorè: Vivace
17. Nuevos Estudios Sencillos: No. 3, Omaggio a Caturla: Moderato assai
18. Nuevos Estudios Sencillos: No. 4, Omaggio a Prokofiev: Vivace
19. Nuevos Estudios Sencillos: No. 5, Omaggio a Tarrega: Comodo
20. Nuevos Estudios Sencillos: No. 6, Omaggio a Sor: Tempo libero
21. Nuevos Estudios Sencillos: No. 7, Omaggio a Piazzolla: Allegro
22. Nuevos Estudios Sencillos: No. 8, Omaggio a Villa-Lobos: Tranquillo
23. Nuevos Estudios Sencillos: No. 9, Omaggio a Szymanowski: Lento assai
24. Nuevos Estudios Sencillos: No. 10, Omaggio a Stravinsky: Toccata
25. Un dia de Noviembre
26. El Decameron Negro: I. El arpa del guerrero
27. El Decameron Negro: II. La huida de los amantes por el valle de los ecos
28. El Decameron Negro: III. Balada de la doncella enamorada