Program

Henrique Oswald | Quintet for Piano and Strings Op. 18 | Allegro moderato

Heitor Villa-Lobos | Bachianas Brasileiras No. 5

Agustín Barrios | Un Sueño en la Floresta

Astor Piazzolla | Four Seasons | Invierno Porteño

Gabriela Lena Frank | “Quijotadas” for String Quartet | Alborada | Seguidilla para La Mancha

Astor Piazzolla | Café 1930

Radames Gnattali | “Carinhosa” | “Negaceando”

Astor Piazzolla | Four Seasons | Primavera Porteña

Laura Vega | Riojana

Astor Piazzolla | Libertango

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Undoubtedly the preeminent virtuoso guitarist of his generation, Pablo Sainz-Villegas garners resounding acclaim from the global press, hailed as the successor to Andrés Segovia and an ambassador of Spanish culture worldwide. His version of the Aranjuez Concerto is the most acclaimed nowadays by critics and symphonic orchestras worldwide. He stands as the first solo guitarist to perform at Carnegie Hall in New York since the venerable Maestro Andrés Segovia's historic performance in 1983. Additionally, he has etched his name as the first guitarist to collaborate with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra since 2001, as well as the sole guitarist to perform with the Berlin Philharmonic since 1983 at their New Year’s Eve -concert.

Since his remarkable debut with the New York Philharmonic, under the masterful baton of Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos at Avery Fisher Hall in Lincoln Center, Pablo Sainz-Villegas has graced stages across more than 40 countries. His performances have resonated within the hallowed halls of eminent orchestras such as the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, the Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra, and the National Orchestra of Spain. He has also adorned renowned theaters including the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall in Moscow, Musikverein in Vienna, Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing, and Suntory Hall in Tokyo, among numerous others of similar eminence.

In 2024 Sainz-Villegas will make his debut with the Philadelphia Orchestra and San Francisco Symphony, and tour the US playing with the Phoenix Symphony, Naples Symphony and Houston Symphony among others. He will premier Arturo Márquez’s first Guitar Concerto, written for Pablo, in the US and Canada and will tour back in Colombia, Taiwan & Europe.

Pablo Sainz-Villegas has graced expansive audiences numbering in the tens of thousands. Among these notable occasions are performances at the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium in Madrid, captivating over 85,000 attendees, as well as concerts held in distinguished venues like Chicago's Grant Park, Lisbon's iconic Praça do Comércio, and the illustrious Hollywood Bowl, accompanied by the esteemed Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra. Noteworthy among his repertoire of remarkable feats is a performance on a floating stage adrift the Amazon River, an event broadcast to countless viewers across the globe.

Hand in hand with his incredible trajectory, the success of Pablo Sainz-Villegas's interpretation of Joaquín Rodrigo's Concierto de Aranjuez has summoned numerous invitations from renowned conductors, including Miguel Harth-Bedoya, Alexander Shelley, Richard Egarr and Juanjo Mena. This collaborative symphony has not only enhanced his artistry but also solidified his standing among the virtuosos of our time.

As an acclaimed artist with over thirty international awards, including the Andrés Segovia, Francisco Tárrega, and Christopher Parkening awards, and a frequent performer in institutional representation concerts, Pablo Sainz-Villegas has had the privilege of playing, on various occasions, before members of the Spanish Royal Family, including his concert at the Princess of Asturia Awards in 2021. He has also performed for other heads of state and international leaders such as the Dalai Lama.

In alignment with his artistry, as a musician affiliated with SONY Classical, he has unveiled three albums, each a testament to his musical prowess and creative spirit. His most recent opus, entitled 'The Blue Album,' was released in June 2023.

Pablo Sainz-Villegas believes that music can unite communities across the globe, which is why he is a socially committed artist. Pablo Sainz-Villegas founded the philanthropic project “El Legado de la Música Sin Fronteras” in 2006, through which he has shared his music with over 45,000 children and young people worldwide. He is also the founder, inspiration, and driving force behind the non-profit organization Strings in Common. Strings in Common is his love letter to the cultural power of the guitar, an instrument with the ability to represent numerous international traditions. In his words, “The guitar is an instrument of the people. It has the power to reach audiences and bridge the gap between art music and pop-culture.”

Additionally, as a tireless advocate for the development of classical guitar repertoire, he has premiered numerous works, including the first piece written for guitar by the renowned film score composer and five-time Oscar winner, John Williams, as well as his duo ‘A preayer for peace’, created for Yo-Yo Ma and Pablo. He has also premiered compositions by Tomás Marco, Jesús Torres, María Dolores Malumbres, David del Puerto, and Sergio Assad, among others. Looking towards a future that holds more performance opportunities for classical guitarists, Sainz-Villegas has commissioned guitar works from composers Arturo Márquez, Francisco Coll, and Laura Vega to premiere in 2023 and 2025.

Currently, Pablo Sainz-Villegas is the artistic director and driving force of La Rioja Festival, a project of his own conception that showcases his home region to the world, an homage to the lively and supportive community that has been an integral part of his upbringing and musical career.

Pablo Sainz-Villegas has been living in the United States since 2001 and looks forward to a season of performing and collaborating with incredible artists.

Featuring

Spanish-born violinist Francisco Fullana, winner of the 2018 Avery Fisher Career Grant, has been hailed as an "amazing talent" (Gustavo Dudamel) and "frighteningly awesome" (Buffalo News). His solo violin album Bach’s Long Shadow, was named BBC Music Magazine’s Instrumental Choice of the Month. Its five star review stated: ‘Fullana manages to combine Itzhak Perlman's warmth with the aristocratic poise of Henryk Szeryng'

A native of Mallorca in the Balearic Islands of Spain, Francisco is making a name for himself as both a performer, fearless leader and a founder of innovative educational residencies. As a soloist, he has performed the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto with the Bayerische Philharmonie led by the late Sir Colin Davis, the Sibelius Concerto with the Münchner Rundfunkorchester, and the Brahms Violin Concerto with Venezuela’s Teresa Carreño Orchestra under the baton of Gustavo Dudamel. His versatility as a performer, both with and without conductor, has brought him to perform with numerous ensembles across the artistic spectrum: from major orchestras such as the City of Birmingham, Vancouver, Aachen, Pacific and Buffalo Symphony Orchestras, the chamber orchestras of Saint Paul and Philadelphia, to the baroque ensemble Apollo’s Fire and the new music driven Metropolis Ensemble. Francisco has worked under the batons of Hans Graf, José Luis Gómez, Alondra de la Parra, Christoph Poppen, Jeannette Sorrell, and Joshua Weilerstein, among many others.

Fullana is one of the first international solo violinists to fully embrace and absorb the baroque language of historical performance. His passion for the gut strings has blossomed into fruitful collaborations with Baroque groups all over the world. Last season, Fullana was the Artist-in-Residence with the Grammy-winning ensemble Apollo’s Fire, performing 18 concerto performances on tour, including stops at Carnegie Hall and Severance Hall among many others. They recently released Vivaldi’s Four Seasons on Avie Records to great success: The album debut at #2 of the Billboard Charts and was named Top Ten Album Of the Year by the Sunday Times. BBC Music Magazine’s review stated: ‘Francisco Fullana reveals Vivaldi’s poetry with effortless refinement.’ The partnership continued this spring, performing Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons on tour around the UK, including stops at Aldenburgh Festival & St. Martin in the Fields.

Highlights of Francisco’s upcoming orchestral engagements in 2024 include debuts with The Florida Orchestra, Budapest MAV, Lodz, Pasadena, Rosario, Saarbrucken Radio and Simón Bolivar Symphonies among many others, as well as returns to Austin and Xalapa Symphonies, Boulder Philharmonic and the Symphony of the Americas. Fullana will also return to play/conduct the Chamber Orchestras of Philadelphia and San Antonio and the Balearic Islands Symphony, leading programs from Mozart’s Jupiter Symphony and Chevalier de St. Georges’ concerti to Beethoven symphonies and Bartók Divertimento. Recent and upcoming recital debuts include the Phillips Collection in Washington DC and Palm Beach’s Kravis Center, Barcelona’s L’Auditori as well as recitals debuts at the Heidelberg, Darmstadt, Dresden, Mecklenburg-Vorlpolmmern and Geizeitenkonzerte festivals with his duo partner, pianist Matthias Kirchnerheit. In Asia, Fullana will make his awaited return this spring, performing recitals throughout western and southern Japan.

His passion for working with youth orchestras through the Fortissimo Youth Initiative will be at full display this season affter recently making his concerto debut at Carnegie Hall’s Stern Perelman Hall, where he performed Lalo’s Symphonie Espagnole with the Grammy-award winning New York Youth Symphony. This summer Francisco will embark on a month long tour with the Spanish National Youth Symphony JONDE, premiering a new concerto by Mikel Urkiza under the baton of Pablo Gónzalez and recording a new concerto album for Orchid Classics.

In 2018 Orchid Classics released Francisco’s acclaimed debut recording Through the Lens of Time performed with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra under Carlos Izcaray. Fullana’s new double album on Orchid, Bach’s Long Shadow, juxtaposes two of the monumental Bach’s Partitas on gut strings and baroque setup with virtuoso solo violin works from the next 3 centuries. His most recent project, Spanish Light, showcases staples and hidden gems of the Spanish repertoire alongside the Spanish pianist Alba Ventura.

Active as a chamber musician, Francisco is a performing artist at NYC’s Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and has participated in the Marlboro Music Festival, the Musicians from Marlboro tours, the Perlman Music Program, the Da Camera Society, and the LaJolla, Moab, Music@Menlo, Mainly Mozart, Music in the Vineyards, and Newport music festivals. He recently formed a musical duo with guitar extraordinaire Jason Vieaux, touring the United States through 2024-25. His musical collaborators have included Viviane Hagner, Nobuko Imai, Mitsuko Uchida, and members of the Guarneri, Juilliard, Takács, and Cleveland quartets. Francisco’s Spanish roots are also often explored in collaboration with Hispanic artists such as guitarist Pablo Sainz-Villegas and bandoneonist JP Jofre. Their recital for The Violin Channel’s Vanguard Concerts at Merkin Hall was just released for worldwide release on all major streaming platforms. Francisco Fullana has been named as the recipient of the 2023 the Darioush and Shahpar Khaledi Prize from the Festival Napa Valley.

Born into a family of educators, Francisco is a graduate of the Royal Conservatory of Madrid, where he matriculated under the tutelage of Manuel Guillén. He received Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from The Juilliard School following studies with Donald Weilerstein and Masao Kawasaki, and holds an Artist Diploma from the USC Thornton School of Music, where he worked with the renowned violinist Midori.

In 2015 Francisco was honored with First Prize in Japan’s Munetsugu Angel Violin Competition, as well as all four of that competition’s special prizes including the Audience and Orchestra awards. Additional awards include First Prizes at the Johannes Brahms and Julio Cardona International Violin Competitions, the Pro Musicis International Award, and the Pablo Sarasate National Competition.

Francisco is a committed innovator, leading new institutions of musical education for young people. He is a co-founder of San Antonio’s Classical Music Summer Institute, where he currently serves as Artistic Leader and Advisor. He also created the Fortissimo Youth Initiative, a series of music seminars and performances with youth orchestras, which aims to explore and deepen young musicians’ understanding of conductorless chamber orchestra playing. The seminars are deeply immersive, thrusting youngsters into the sonic world of a single period while inspiring them to channel their overwhelming energy in the service of vibrant older styles of musical expression. The results can be galvanic, and Francisco continues to build on these educational models.

Francisco Fullana performs on the 1735 "Mary Portman" ex-Kreisler Guarneri del Gesù violin, kindly on loan from Clement and Karen Arrison through the Stradivari Society of Chicago.

Program Notes

Born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 1852, pianist and composer Henrique Oswald was born to a Swiss-German immigrant father and Italian mother. His strong European roots undoubtedly influenced his compositional style, which is far more entrenched in the European, Romantic-era tradition of Schumann, Brahms and Schubert than Brazilian folk music. While Oswald wrote quite a bit of chamber music (sonatas, trios, quartets, and the Quintet for Piano and Strings on the program tonight), most of his works remained unpublished until decades after his death. The first movement of the Quintet, which opens the concert, is lush, romantic, suspenseful, and full of hope. Every melody soars with an eagerness and courage that spans the full range of the instruments and leaves nothing a secret. It is pure, unabashed, Romantic-style writing; the first movement of Brahms’ Piano Trio in B Major, for example, has a similar vibrancy, but Oswald’s Quintet is more continuous and filled out in his arpeggiations, more connected in its melodic lines. It never lets go of its emotional urgency. The balance between the instruments is superb: the quartet of strings spark loving dialogues, take turns initiating the conversation, and never step on one another’s toes. Just as the violins are finishing an angelic climax in a high register, a rich, warm entrance in the cello pulls the music back to earth. The piano, with its waves of arpeggiated harmonies and lush chords, is the harmonic bed that holds all these searing melodies together.

The Bachianas Brasileiras (Bach-inspired Brazilian works) of Brazil’s Heitor Villa-Lobos are a set of nine Baroque-inspired suites that blend ideas and styles from that period with more contemporary Brazilian sensibility and expression. Written between 1930-1945, each one is scored uniquely: No. 1 is scored for an orchestra of cellos, No. 3 is for piano and orchestra, No. 9 is for chorus or string orchestra, etc. They are experimental, innovative, and speak to the universality of Bach’s music to inspire someone like Villa-Lobos, who came out of such a different cultural background and time period. Bachianas Brasileiras No. 5, originally scored for soprano and an orchestra of cellos, consists of an Aria (Cantilena) and a Dance (Martelo). The Aria, performed on this program, is Villa-Lobos’ most famous work for a reason. The work is in a simple ABA structure or Ternary form, common during the Baroque period and especially for arias (“Da Capo” is another name for this form when applied to arias), but the remarkable aspect of this piece is the sheer beauty of its melancholic melody. Written by lyricist Ruth Valadares Correa, the text that accompanies the middle section of the original vocal part gives a clue as to the emotional environment:

In the evening, a dreamy, pretty cloud, slow and transparent, covers outer space with pink. In the infinite the moon rises sweetly, beautifying the evening, like a friendly girl who prepares herself and dreamily makes the evening beautiful. A soul anxious to be pretty shouts to the sky, the land, all of Nature. The birds silence themselves to her complaints, and the sea reflects all of Her [the moon's] wealth. The gentle light of the moon now awakens the cruel saudade [nostalgic or melancholic longing] that laughs and cries. In the evening, a dreamy, pretty cloud, slow and transparent, covers outer space with pink.

Agustin Barrios Mangore was a Paraguayan virtuoso guitarist and composer from the early 20th century who is cemented in musical history as one of the greatest instrumentalists of all time. Thankfully he can be heard today, as he was one of the first guitarist to make records. His work Un sueño en la Floresta (A Dream in the Forest) is as delicate and beautiful as it is technically challenging. Throughout the work are continuous tremolos, constant repeated notes that lay a harmonic bed underneath the melody, which require the performer to be completely in control of the instrument. The fluidity of that accompaniment creates the magical, impressionistic environment of a peaceful forest scene. Franz Liszt’s famously virtuosic La Campanella comes to mind as a comparison; the “accompaniment” becomes the dazzling aspect of the work.

Argentine composer Astor Piazzolla was the leader of the nuevo tango movement of the mid-20th century, combining jazz and classical elements with traditional tango. His music is both fierce and sweet, often utilizing extended techniques for the instruments to produce raw percussive sounds, yet also allowing for nostalgic, heart-wrenching lyricism. Piazzolla’s The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires, conceptually an homage to Vivaldi’s famous Four Seasons, are a set of tango works scored originally for his ensemble of violin, piano, electric guitar, double bass and bandoneón. There are several arrangements of this gorgeous set, and tonight you will hear the version for Piano Trio by famous Argentine cellist José Bragato. In both Invierno porteno (Winter) and Primavera Porteña (Spring), all three instruments get to shine as they take turns passing off virtuosic solos before launching into vigorous, percussive tangos together. “Winter” is perhaps the most unusual of the set in its highly indecisive character. After a brief, slow introduction, the music heats up into a tango rhythm before, oddly, allowing for an extended piano cadenza. After the other two join in another frantic tango, the string instruments take turns weeping vulnerable melodies through their instruments. As if this disjunct structure weren’t enough, the movement ends extraordinarily calmly, almost in a Baroque style, with simple sequences that inspire reflection. Perhaps the odd structure of this movement speaks to the unpredictability of winter; a dramatic, damaging storm one day could yield a peaceful, sunny one full of comforting powder. “Spring,” on the other hand, is more predictable, though no less intense. In a rather straightforward fast-slow-fast structure, this energetic, passionate tango yields to an extremely sensitive cello solo that invites the violin before all three instruments gather focus for a scintillating finish.

Gabriela Lena Frank is an American composer who often finds inspiration in folk music from Latin America and Spain. Her first Guggenheim Fellowship, as well as a Latin Grammy Award, were for best Contemporary Classical Music Composition for Inca Dances, written for the Cuerteto Latinoamericano. Her works are raw, direct, and earnest, sometimes using extended techniques for classical instruments to achieve a more primal timbre and to imitate more primitive instruments. This is the case with her string quartet Quijotadas, which you will hear in the first two movements on the program. About Quijotadas, Gabriela Lena Frank writes:

Quijotadas (2007) for string quartet is inspired by El Ingenioso Hidalgo don Quijote de la Mancha by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (1547-1616). Widely considered the first modern novel, this tale satirizes post-Conquest Spain by relating the tale of a middle-aged lesser nobleman who undertakes absurd adventures in pursuit of romantic — and seriously outdated — knightly ideals. Cervantes' brilliant and colorful resulting social commentary still reverberates for us today in the arts and popular culture at large. Quijotadas, which is the Spanish word for extravagant delusions wrought in the Quixotic spirit, is in five movements. [The first two movements, on this program, are]:

I. Alborada: Traditionally a Spanish song of welcome or beginnings, this is in the style of music for the chifro, a small high-pitched wooden panpipe played with one hand. It is often employed by a traveling guild worker to announce his services as he walks through the streets of town.

II. Seguidilla: This free interpretation of the spirited dance rhythms of Don Quijote's homeland of La Mancha also evokes two typical instruments — the six-stringed guitar, and its older cousin, the bandurria, which finds its origins in Renaissance Spain.

Written in 1985, Astor Piazzolla’s four-movement work Histoire du Tango is both an irresistible piece of music and an important document, as it highlights changes of the tango across several generations, from 1900 through the 1980s. About his sentimental duet Café 1930, Piazzolla writes:

People stopped dancing [the tango] as they did in 1900, preferring instead simply to listen to it. It became more musical, and more romantic. This tango has undergone total transformation: the movements are slower, with new and often melancholy harmonies. Tango orchestras come to consist of two violins, two concertinas, a piano, and a bass. The tango is sometimes sung as well.

Among Brazilian musicians, Radamés Gnattali is a household name – here, he is sorely under-recognized. Like Henrique Oswald, Gnattali owes his early interest in classical music to his immigrant parents, who came from Italy and whose mother was a pianist and music teacher. Upon arriving in Brazil, his father became a bassoonist and conductor. While Gnattali had a strong interest in becoming a classical pianist and even performed Tchaikovsky’s B-flat Piano Concerto with the orchestra of the Teatro Municipal in Rio de Janeiro, his strong interest in popular music in Brazil led him to compose music heavily influenced by Brazilian folk music. Gnattali maintained a long career as a multifaceted musician akin to Leonard Bernstein: he composed, conducted, performed as a pianist, and taught, all at a very high level. The two contrasting solo piano works on this program exemplify his sensitive ability to incorporate Brazilian folk and jazz elements into solo works that could be performed in a classical concert hall. Carinhosa, “tender,” is a slow waltz that yearns with a bittersweet sentiment. After a bluesy, florid introduction, Negaceando launches into an playful, virtuosic choro (instrumental Brazilian street music) that alternates between a catchy offbeat groove and dramatic, dazzling, jazzy cadenzas that evoke the wild improvisations of stride pianists.

"Riojana for Guitar and String Quartet" written by Laura Vega was created in 2023 by commission of the "Cuerdas en Común" Association to be premiered by guitarist Pablo Sainz-Villegas and the Agarita. The work takes as its starting point the anthem of La Rioja and other popular melodies linked to Logroño, the city where the Spanish guitarist was born. Written in a single movement, the music evolves through various sections that present very contrasting soundscapes on a musical journey through Riojan lands. From a calm and melancholic initial andante, the work progresses through rhythmically marked sections, joyful dances, lyrical and expressive moments featuring the solo guitar, and percussive sounds that include the drum sound on the guitar, a timbral effect achieved by crossing the lower strings. This musical composition evokes the landscape and traditions of this beautiful region in northern Spain.

Astor Piazzolla’s break into nuevo tango style, which mixed elements of traditional tango, classical music, and jazz, is represented most clearly in his irresistible work Libertango, composed in 1974. Piazzolla had tried several other genres before finding his voice in nuevo tango – pure classical music, electronic, a rock/jazz mix – but influential musical figures like the renowned pedagogue Nadia Boulanger (who incidentally helped George Gershwin find his voice as well) encouraged Piazzolla to stick to his tango roots.