141 CD / Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco: The Well-Tempered Guitars
Description
The cycle presented here, which refers to Bach’s "Well-tempered Clavier", of course not only in the title, is presented so euphoniously and with such virtuosity by the two Swabian artists that I can quite confidently recommend this album as one of the most interesting classical guitar productions of recent years....
10 reviews for 141 CD / Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco: The Well-Tempered Guitars
Füge deine Bewertung hinzu
You must be logged in to post a review.
Classics Today –
Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco enriched 20th-century guitar music with many significant works, including two large-scale cycles: the 24 Capichos de Goya for solo guitar, and the present set of 24 Preludes and Fugues for two guitars. The Well-Tempered Guitars embraces a wide range of styles and forms, from baroque dances and semi-tragic Beethoven/Chopin musings to angular Bartókian jibes (the E-flat minor Fugue), slinky modality (the E minor Prelude), and rhapsodic, jazzy ballads (are there hints of "Nature Boy" in the C minor Prelude?).
The music is skillfully crafted, thoroughly idiomatic, and effective for the instruments, and bears its ambitious scope lightly, without pretensions. Excerpts often turn up on duo guitar programs, but rarely the entire opus. An earlier complete recording by the Duo Tedesco for Koch Schwann apparently is out of print, leaving Tacet′s Duo Favori with the field to itself.
The players perform magnificently. In the E minor Prelude, for example, the legato triplets seamlessly pass back and forth between instruments yet still manage to convey the composer′s agitato request. Notice, too, how the guitarists effortlessly dovetail the G major Prelude′s syncopated lines that spiral in opposite directions, and how they allow the D major Tempo di Giga fugue its bouncy due. They time and tint the F minor Prelude′s alternating hushed tremolos and "quasi recitativo" passages to haunting perfection and subsequently ease their way into its melancholy companion fugue. Tacet′s warm, ample engineering fully captures the Duo Favori′s impressive range of dynamics and colors, while duo partner Frank Armbruster′s excellent and enthusiastic booklet notes couldn′t be bettered.
Enthusiastically recommended, and not just for guitar fans.
Jed Distler
Der Schallplattenmann sagt –
A Cycle Worth Discovering – Masterfully Performed
Barbara Gräsle and Frank Armbruster, performing as Duo Favori, deliver a thoroughly compelling interpretation of Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s "The Well-Tempered Guitars" in this newly reissued recording. This late masterpiece by the Florentine composer stands out refreshingly from the all-too-familiar Hispanic clichés that dominated 20th-century guitar repertoire. While the work’s title clearly nods to Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier, its musical substance goes far beyond mere homage—and in the hands of these two Swabian virtuosos, it emerges as one of the most fascinating and accomplished guitar-duo releases in recent classical music. The duo’s performance is as sonorously beautiful as it is technically dazzling, making this album a standout contribution to the genre.
Klassik heute –
Within the guitar repertoire, Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s Les guitares bien tempérées stands as a monolith—an erratic boulder in a landscape of lighter fare. Rarely has this cycle of 24 Preludes and Fugues for two guitars been committed to record, and rarer still is it heard in the concert hall. That Castelnuovo-Tedesco would compose such a monumental work—spanning over two hours—directly inspired by Bach speaks volumes about his esteem for the instrument. That Duo Favori has now risen to the challenge of recording all 44 movements on a double album reveals, in turn, just how deeply Barbara Gräsle and Frank Armbruster value this neglected masterpiece. Stylistically, the composition gives little away of its 1960s origins. Tedesco kept his distance from the avant-garde throughout his career, clinging instead to a musical language steeped in Mediterranean lyricism and cantabile warmth. Yet (or perhaps because of this) the work’s stylistic palette is strikingly diverse. Here, nearly 300 years of musical history converge: from neo-Baroque fugal forms and veiled Beethoven quotations to echoes of Stravinsky, jazz, musette, and even rumba.
For this recording, Duo Favori consulted the autograph manuscripts for the first time—a detail sadly omitted from the otherwise illuminating booklet notes, which do not clarify how these sources diverge from the published score. Their performance, however, is convincing and cohesive, with a musicality and precision that betray two decades of collaboration. The sound is spatial and pleasingly natural, offering the listener an ideal gateway to Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s imposing, underappreciated Well-Tempered Guitars.
Frank Gerdes
klassik.com –
A Bach reference of a singular kind
--> original review
Ensemble –
Stamina Rewarded
First released in 1997 as two separate CDs, this expansive 1962 cycle now arrives as a well-justified double album. Duo Favori guides its listeners with assured hands through the thicket of keys and thematic development, shaping motifs with plastic clarity while never losing sight of the larger architecture. Yet they never forget to indulge in lush sonorities or dazzle with virtuosity—exactly as the music demands. Following all 48 movements in one sitting requires patience, but those who commit the time will be richly rewarded.
Detlef Bork
KulturSPIEGEL –
There was once an era when the label "volkstümlich" (folk-inspired) could destroy a composer’s reputation. Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco (1895–1968), the Florentine master, suffered this injustice more than most—as this astonishing double album proves. Following in Bach’s footsteps with buoyant creativity, he explores the full range of the guitar duo across all keys, where the dance-like momentum of the Preludes often spills into the Fugues. Duo Favori delivers this recording with elegance and verve, revealing the work’s brilliance in full.
Audiophile Audition –
If the two Preludes and Fugues from this work in the Castellani & Andriaccio Duo reviewed above whet your appetite for more, here is the whole enchilada. The monumental work - commissioned by the duo Presti and Lagoya - obviously is a bow to J.S. Bach in its structure of 24 Preludes and Fugues, but it deviates quite a bit from Bach′s WTC and Chopin′s model, the 24 Preludes Op. 28.
Bach started with C Major, then C Minor and went thru all the keys chromatically in order. Chopin also started with C Major but went to the parallel minor key of A Minor etc. Castelnuovo-Tedesco begins in G Minor and then goes thru alternate major and minor keys in steps of a fifth. His plan finally makes sense at the very end because the final fugue ends in glorious C Major.
The wealth of musical styles and forms in these pieces is staggering and quite a contrast to both the Bach and Chopin works. One can hear touches of Beethoven, Stravinsky, Bartok′s quartets, even some jazz. The sounds produced by the two guitars occasionally approaches that of an orchestra in its richness and varied tone color.
The performers are greatly skilled and seem to fly thru the technical difficulties of some of the pieces. Only two mics were used in this purist recording - one to a guitar.
Very highly recommended!
John Sunier
Kleine Zeitung, Graz –
This is Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier reimagined: not for piano, but for guitars, and not by the Leipzig master, but by the Florentine composer with Sephardic roots. The German Duo Favori tackles these 24 exquisitely woven Preludes and Fugues with verve, proving the guitar’s power to rival the keyboard’s contrapuntal glory.
TSC
Fanfare-Magazin –
... Technically the works are often very demanding, both in terms of left-hand agility and the unanimity of ensemble. In both instances the Duo Favori is outstanding, and they also produce a most attractive tonal quality...
(this) is one no guitar enthusiast can be without.
David Denton
Neue Musikzeitung –
SONOROUS AND SUBTLE
Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco never fully realized his undeniable compositional talent." This widely held view—originating from a concert review by T.W. Adorno—has long hindered an unprejudiced engagement with Tedesco’s works [though this may be somewhat exaggerated; ed. note]. Among his guitar compositions, only the Capriccio Diabolico (Op. 85) and Tarantella (Op. 87) have gained broader recognition. Now, guitarists Barbara Gräsle and Frank Armbruster (Duo Favori) present his Well-Tempered Guitars (Op. 199)—the second major late work for guitar alongside the Caprichos de Goya—on a two-CD set, effectively challenging Adorno’s dismissive verdict.
Duo Favori is the first guitar duo to base their recording on the composer’s autograph manuscripts. The superb recording quality fully captures the sonorous yet subtly refined sound of their instruments. Both musicians demonstrate exceptional technical mastery and a highly developed artistry of touch and phrasing. For those interested not only in the sonic result but also in the theoretical underpinnings, the booklet explains the tonal-conceptual framework—how the work dialogues with Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier and Chopin’s 24 Preludes, both organized by key.
The duo immerses the listener in a wondrous sonic world, though occasionally, the sliding noises of position shifts in delicate piano passages intrude more prominently than the softest tones. Nonetheless, this remains an outstanding recording.