Guitars Speak: Mazurkas Y Sardanas di Stefano Grondona

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Puntata dedicata alla chitarra classica con il nuovo cd, uscito nel 2015 Mazurkas Y Sardanas da parte del Maestro Stefano Grondona. Non è la prima volta che ospitiamo le musiche del Maestro su Guitars Speak, questa volta lo ascolteremo interpretare le melodie di Alexandre Tansman e Gaspar Cassadó.

This episode is dedicated to the classical guitar with the new CD, released in 2015, Mazurkas Y Sardanas by Maestro Stefano Grondona. It's not the first time that we listen to Grondona's musion Guitars Speak, this time we will listen to him interpreting the melodies of Alexandre Tansman and Gaspar Cassadó.


http://radiovocedellasperanza.it/

Masterclass M° Stefano Grondona

Nei giorni giovedì 27 febbraio e venerdì 28 febbraio 2014 dalle ore 11.00 alle ore 18.00
vi sarà, presso il Conservatorio di Udine, il primo incontro della masterclass annuale tenuta dal M° Stefano Grondona.

La masterclass riservata agli studenti interni del Conservatorio Tomadini frequentanti i corsi superiori del Vecchio Ordinamento,

il Triennio e il Biennio prevede la presenza del M° Grondona una volta al mese da febbraio a giugno, 

con un orario articolato in due giorni vicini di cui verrà data informativa agli eventuali interessati 

E' data la possibilità di seguirlo come “uditori” anche ad esterni previo iscrizione e pagamento della quota di 100 euro per tutto il corso (10 giornate di lezione)

Video: Duo Grondona - Mondiello: Danza del Molinero

Video: Duo Grondona - Mondiello plays Cubana

Guitars Speak secondo anno: Nocturnal di Stefano Grondona

Questa sera su Radio Voce della Speranza

Il Maestro Stefano Grondona è tornato a registrare un nuovo cd con la Stradivarius. Dopo le recenti uscite sulle musiche di Llobet, Bach e Tarrega e dopo una lunga attesa di quasi 20 anni ha deciso di registrare musiche legate al repertorio contemporaneo. L'ha fatto con questo ottimo cd intitolato Nocturnal che questa sera ascolteremo in esclusiva su Guitars Speak.

This evening  9 PM on Radio Voce della Speranza

Maestro Stefano Grondona is back with a new CD with the Stradivarius label. After the recent releases of music from Llobet, Bach and Tarrega and after a long wait of nearly 20 years he has decided to record music related to contemporary repertoire again. He did it with this excellent CD called Nocturnal, we will listen to it this night exclusively on Guitars Speak.

You might be interested to:

- Recensione di Nocturnal di Stefano Grondona, Stradivarius 2013
- Reviews of Humoresque by Stefano Grondona and Laura Mondiello 
- Reviews of Respuesta by Stefano Grondona and Humoresque by Stefano Grondona and Laura Mondiello 

Links:

Podcast:  http://chitarraedintorni.blogspot.com/2013/04/guitars-speak-puntate-e-podcast-ii-anno.html
Radio Voce della Speranza http://www.radiovocedellasperanza.it/
Streaming  http://www.radiovocedellasperanza.it/streaming/onair-fo.html

Video: Stefano Grondona plays J.J. Froberger: Tombeau

Video: Stefano Grondona plays F. Chopin: Mazurka op.33 n. 4

Review of Nocturnal by Stefano Grondona, Stradivarius 2013

After almost six years of management of the Blog Chitarra and Dintorni Nuove Musiche I should be accustoms me: in spring time always arrives the new cd by Stefano Grondona. Punctual as Immanuel Kant and endowed with iron Teutonic discipline Mr. Grondona doesn't seem to know the least creative depression and not even the least delay in his recordings.
After having investigated in the creative mind of Llobet and to have granted some raids in the territories of Bach and Tarrega hourly Grondona returns to the most contemporary repertoire after an absence lasted different years. I make reference in fact to the LP "Grondona, Stephen: Guitar Works By Bach, Henze, Petrassi by Stephen Grondona" dated 1994..
The titleof this cd "Nocturnal"  reflects abundantly the calmest and intimate character of the music played by him, in the cd we find in fact the "Nocturnal after John Dowland" by Benjamin Britten, the "Five Bagatelles by William Walton. "All in Twlight and "Muir Woods" by Toru Takemitsu and "Five Impromptus" by Richard Rodney Bennett. All music with nocturnal characteristics, where the sound always to rise and to periodically bathe in the silence that surrounds it.
Grondona is a musician of rare musical intelligence and in this cd he confirms all of his cleverness, experience and preparation. What has left me some amazed listening to this cd is that the music interpreted by him “sing” as of the classical ones and not as passages of contemporary music. I have had the strange feeling "to listen to" these music as doing parts of a corpus of interpretations already defined inside the world of the classical guitar. As if I was listening to Carcassi or Giuliani.
I don't know how to understand it, if this derives from the particular interpretation of Grondona or from the fact that my ear for a long time by now is gotten used to these passages and perceives them as passages that their innovative push has exhausted and of which has gone defining an interpretative "form"that has made a new part of the classic repertorire.
Is The thing a problem? Not as it regards me, at least. Grondona is an exceptional interpreter and his cleverness is always confirmed, as they are the quality and the emotions that he knows how to express playing these passages. Stradivarius realizes another exceptional cd in this year, a perfect job for the "shelf" virtual or real for every who loves guitar, and not only the classical one.

Guitars Speak secondo anno: Nocturnal di Stefano Grondona

Mercoledì sera su Radio Voce della Speranza

Il Maestro Stefano Grondona è tornato a registrare un nuovo cd con la Stradivarius. Dopo le recenti uscite sulle musiche di Llobet, Bach e Tarrega e dopo una lunga attesa di quasi 20 anni ha deciso di registrare musiche legate al repertorio contemporaneo. L'ha fatto con questo ottimo cd intitolato Nocturnal che mercoledì sera ascolteremo in esclusiva su Guitars Speak.

Wednesday evening  9 PM on Radio Voce della Speranza

Maestro Stefano Grondona is back with a new CD with the Stradivarius label. After the recent releases of music from Llobet, Bach and Tarrega and after a long wait of nearly 20 years he has decided to record music related to contemporary repertoire again. He did it with this excellent CD called Nocturnal, we will listen to it on Wednesday night exclusively on Guitars Speak.

You might be interested to:

- Recensione di Nocturnal di Stefano Grondona, Stradivarius 2013
- Reviews of Humoresque by Stefano Grondona and Laura Mondiello 
- Reviews of Respuesta by Stefano Grondona and Humoresque by Stefano Grondona and Laura Mondiello 

Links:

Podcast:  http://chitarraedintorni.blogspot.com/2013/04/guitars-speak-puntate-e-podcast-ii-anno.html
Radio Voce della Speranza http://www.radiovocedellasperanza.it/
Streaming  http://www.radiovocedellasperanza.it/streaming/onair-fo.html

Video: Stefano Grondona a Brusio 2

Video: Stefano Grondona a Brusio 1

Recensione di Nocturnal di Stefano Grondona, Stradivarius 2013

Dopo quasi sei anni di gestione del Blog Chitarra e Dintorni Nuove Musiche dovrei essermi abituato: con la primavera arriva sempre il nuovo cd del maestro Stefano Grondona. Puntuale come Immanuel Kant e dotato di ferrea disciplina teutonica il Maestro non sembra conoscere non dico la minima crisi creativa ma neanche il minimo ritardo nelle sue consegne.
Dopo aver indagato a fondo nell’animo creativo di Llobet e essersi concesso alcune incursioni nei territori di Bach e  ….. ora Grondona ritorna al repertorio più contemporaneo, dopo una assenza durata diversi anni. Faccio riferimento infatti all’incisione “Grondona, Stefano: Guitar Works By Bach, Henze, Petrassi by Stefano Grondona” datato 1994 ….
Il titolo di questo cd “Nocturnal” riflette abbondantemente il carattere più quieto e intimo delle musiche da lui suonate, nel cd trovano posto infatti il “Nocturnal after John Dowland” di Benjamin Britten, le “Five Bagatelles di William Walton. “All in Twlight e “Muir Woods” di Toru Takemitsu e “Five Impromptus” di Richard Rodney Bennett. Tutte musiche dalla caratteristiche quasi corpuscolari, dove il suono sempre sorgere e immergersi periodicamente nel silenzio che lo circonda.
Grondona è un musicista di rara intelligenza musicale e anche in questo cd conferma tutta la sua bravura, esperienza e preparazione. Quello che mi ha lasciato un po’ sorpreso ascoltando questo cd è che le musiche da lui interpretate suonano come dei classici e non come dei brani di musica contemporanea. Ho avuto la strana sensazione di “sentire” queste musiche ormai come facenti parti di un corpus di interpretazioni già definite all’interno del mondo della chitarra classica. Un po’ come se ascoltassi Tarrega o Giuliani.
Non so capire se questo derivi dalla particolare interpretazione di Grondona o dal fatto che il mio orecchio si sia ormai da tempo abituato a questi brani e li percepisca come brani che hanno esaurito la loro spinta innovativa e di cui nel tempo si è andata definendosi una “forma” interpretativa che li ha resi a loro modo ormai dei classici alla portata dei studenti agli ultimi anni del Conservatorio.
La cosa è un problema? Non per quanto mi riguarda , almeno. Grondona è un interprete eccezionale e la sua bravura è fuori discussione così come lo sono la qualità e le emozioni che sa esprimere suonando questi brani. La Stradivarius realizza un altro cd eccezionale in quest’annata, un lavoro direi impedibile nello “scaffale” virtuale o reale di ogni appassionato di chitarra, e non solo di chitarra classica.

Video: Stefano Grondona plays M. Llobet: 6 Canciones Catalanas

Video: Stefano Grondona plays E. Granados: La Maja de Goya

Grondona plays Asturias music by Albeniz, Stradivarius 2009

The musicians are explorers, pathfinders as it existed once upon a time, like Livingstone, Stanley and even like Walter Bonatti, able to pick up maps written for them by some geographers of the past, maps to interpret, to decipher, from which start to explore and bring back a new representation of the territory. Do you think this is a strange idea? Try to think about the musical score as a map and the composer as a geographer who created it and the musician as the explorer who ventures with this map in his hands, which returns telling us the territory he explored playing this score. Each new performance, each new interpretation unfolds before us a new territory, a new representation of the score, which is text and map together at the same time, guidelines for the musician who must follow and at the same time revealing it by his own taste, its own personality, its own experience. How many times have we heard playing Asturias? How many times have we asked ourselves, again? Why is this question, which is not simply addressed to Asturias? Because sometimes happens that a musician is able to give a performance of a music getting such beauty and elegance that this new representation of the score becomes not only a landmark but the new canon style at which we feel an obligation, implicit or explicitly, to comply. It happens with Segovia and it will happen again. It’s like as facing his version we lack the forces, lack the courage to look for in the score, in the map a new representation, a new path, to explore an area that as visited by hordes of tourists we now believe that has exhausted its possibilities. This is perhaps the major difference between a real musician (explorer) and the simple tourist (the trivial interpreter): courage, culture, musical and emotional intelligence to be able to watch the score with new eyes and sensitivity, the ability to explore a new direction, to mark a new path, to show and represent things in a new perspective, perhaps, to create a new aesthetic and a new ethics. This is why I have to thank Stefano Grondona that collaboratively with the excellent Laura Mondiello has decided to offer us in closing 2009 this tribute to the music of Isaac Albeniz for the centenary of his death. Also for this occasion the Master gives us an essay of his art, exquisitely interpreting the music of Albeniz and managing the miracle to giving us new interpretations and new ways of listening to this music that are the most ever played by classical guitarists. As always, playing the original Torres, equipped with new ropes made by Aquila Corde, the two guitarists play twelve tracks (including the famous Asturias) demonstrating to the lazies and the losers that who wants to do be a musician does not need a tourist’s mentality but an explorer’s one, and that also in maps and in the most popular or played scores we can create new routes, managing to escape from the usual cliches and the usual stereotypes. Eventually, perhaps, as in a story by Borges, the geographer and explorer, will examine a single map on which are represented on all maps of the universe, then perhaps all the music will become a music only, or perhaps , a single sound .... I do not know. A great album recorded in perfect way by Davide Piva and mastered by Andrea Dandolo, with beautiful packaging and graphics edited by Patrizia Peruffo. Five Stars!

Stefano Grondona in concerto

Stefano Grondona in concerto CONCERTO di Stefano Grondona venerdì 18 gennaio, ore 20.30 - Napoli - Chiesa S.Caterina da Siena Ingresso € 10 Si rinnova il sodalizio della Fondazione Pietà de’ Turchini  con l’Associazione culturale Altre Corde, insieme alla quale si dà il via alla seconda edizione di un ciclo di appuntamenti dedicati al repertorio per chitarra e strumenti a corda. Sarà venerdì 18 Gennaio 2013, nella chiesa di Santa Caterina da Siena, il nuovo incontro con il suono di Antonio de Torres, considerato il massimo costruttore di chitarre di tutti i tempi. Questa volta il concerto sarà tenuto dal Maestro Stefano Grondona, per la prima volta a Napoli, uno dei massimi esponenti del chitarrismo internazionale e grande esperto di strumenti storici. Il programma spazierà dalle trascrizioni di Miguel Llobet da opere pianistiche fino alla musica che il grande compositore giapponese Tōru Takemitsu ha dedicato alla chitarra. La cifra interpretativa altissima di Stefano Grondona ed il suono sublime dello strumento costruito da Antonio de Torres fanno di questo appuntamento un evento imperdibile.   Per maggiori informazioni: www.turchini.it Segreteria(info@turchini.it - 081402395) Ufficio Stampa Federica Castaldo (direzione@turchini.it – 335492769)

Reviews of Humoresque by Stefano Grondona and Laura Mondiello

Humoresque by Stefano Grondona and Laura Mondiello

In the early twentieth century in Argentina’s society and especially in Buenos Aires there was a remarkable interest and development for the guitar world, welcoming artists and luthiers in Barcelona. Catalan Domingo Prat, who was a pupil of the great Miguel Llobet, moved to Buenos Aires and brought with him little by little all the Catalan world. Llobet arrived in Argentina in 1910 made many concert tours, and even he thought about his trasferiment in South America. Maria Luisa Anido (1907-1996), a great Argentina’s guitarist, former a Prat’s student, became a pupil of Llobet. They formed a guitar duo with a repertoire prepared by Llobet himself, and that unfortunately only made two concert tours in 1925 and 1929. Part of this repertoire was published in the '60s, part was lost. No one has heard anything about it untill Stefano Grondona, during his obsessive and enthusiastic rediscovery and reassessment of the Llobet’s character, found it in Barcelona, and has begun his disclosure through the formation of a duo with Laura Mondiello and cds recodrings, initially with the CD Homenaje and now, always for Stradivarius, with this excellent Humoresque.

This disc has all the musics, known and unpublished, of the repertoire of the duo that were not included in Homanaje, creating a Word Premiere Recordings of absolute respect. There are the music of Albeniz and Granados, but also those of the Catalan musicologist Lopez-Chavarri, as well as some classic transcriptions: Daquin, Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, Mendelssohn and Tchaikovsky. The Grondona and Mondiello Duo open a new world with these recordings, strictly played using two original Torres, a world in which Llobet could test and develop the creative and harmonics aspects of the guitar, coming, thanks to innovative lutherie Torres, to discover new possibilities and new musical colors. Subject of criticism at the time the work of this duo and his repertoire finally found its rightful position among the giants of the guitar thanks to the passion and virtuosity of Stefano Grondona and Laura Mondiello. Listen to them and be enchanted, it’s difficult to report a piece over another, though personally I liked very much the novel's famous Hungara Dance No.5 by Brahms. Indispensable.

Reviews of Respuesta by Stefano Grondona and Humoresque by Stefano Grondona and Laura Mondiello

Respuesta by Stefano Grondona

Respuesta a response, response to redeem the image of a great composer like Llobet, whose production has remained largely unexplored and studied. Stefano Grondona creates a new event with this recording on a double CD, a recording acclaimed by critics and that was presented as Editor's Choice by Gramophone. The program includes the integral recording of works for solo guitar by Llobet included the famous Catalan songs, there are pages of great charm and commitment as the variciones sobre un tema de Sor, Respuesta that gives the title to the CD and other musics like the Five Preludes and three Estilos Argentinos, compositions by Quijano that makes reference to the period spent in Argentina. As a supplement it is added a series of transcriptions and arrangements made by the Catalan composer, expressions of "glances that from the Catalan spirit of Llobet were given to the music by countries that he has visited in its own past experiences" as the same Grondona writes in the nice booklet accompanying the double CD. In this "mixed dish" I suggest the Mazurka de Severina by the Italian Federico Bufaletto, "report of personal satisfaction" of the genovese guitarrist.
Grondona achieves here a world of sound, new and nostalgic at the same time, linked to that direct and privileged connection that he has managed to establish with the bets eight-twentieth-century lutherie represented here by the Torres guitar, model 1887 which he used for recording which seems to be in his hands directly spokesman of the sensitive and delicate soul of the Catalan composer, leaving the listener astonished by such skill and beauty. A recording to own and treasure in your own discoteque, for guitarists and not. Here we goe far beyond the simple appreciation for one instrument and its repertoire.

Review of Quadrat D'Or by Stefano Grondona, Stradivarius 2012

Italian Translation

"Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Wagner: in this recording project it is intended to concentrate that repertory which sees the guitar raise its gaze to the greatest figures of music and offer them its voice."

There we are. Maybe. With this latest CD Master Grondona concludes a long and exciting journey of exploration and .. redemption in the repertoire of the Catalan master. No one before him had delved so deeply into Llobet's music, caring with painstaking dedication every aspect, every detail of his music production. The results of this survey have been exceptional: a series of CDs where the virtues of Llobet were reiterated and highlighted after an unexplained "oversight". To conclude, the latest CD with the remaining transcriptions for guitar of musics by Bach, Mozart, Beethoven and Wagner, a Quadrumvirate of musical geniuses able to shake anyone's wrists, which, however, have never written a score for guitar. Here the genius and the sensitivity of Llobet: transcribe, translate, "carry" this musics so they could be played by a guitar. Transcripts rarely performed in public, by the almost intimate, confidential character, not only because of the nature of the Catalan guitarist but also the lack of attention paid to the transcripts, which are considered more often simple banality of the original songs. I believe that this not true: this cd combines two profound musical intelligences, one by Llobet a sensitive virtuous for too long obscured and one by Grondona, an exceptional performer who was able to discover and identify with this music. More words would be superfluous, the guitars speak for themselves.


"Apart from pointing out the quality of Miguel Llobet as a real titan of the modern guitar music, all these arrangements, from the most intimate - also sometimes in the form of  'fragment' - to the most formally complete, force the sensibility of the interpreter beyond the limits of the repertory more correctly known as 'for the guitar', if only by offering the opportunity of a journey out of the ordinary."

Recensione di Quadrat D'Or di Stefano Grondona, Stradivarius 2012

English Version

"Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Wagner.: nel presente progetto discografico si intende concentrare quel repertorio che vede la chitarra sollevare lo sguardo verso i più sacri lumi della musica ed offrire loro la sua voce."

Ci siamo. Forse. L'ultimo cd del Maestro Grondona conclude un lungo e avvincente percorso di esplorazione e di .. redenzione nel repertorio del maestro catalano. Nessuno prima di lui si era addentrato così a fondo nelle musiche di Llobet, curando con certosina dedizione ogni aspetto, ogni particolare della sua produzione musicale. I risultati di questa indagine sono stati eccezionali: una serie di cd dove le virtù di Llobet sono state riproposte e messe in evidenza dopo un periodo di inspiegabile "dimenticanza". 

A concludere, l'ultimo cd con le rimanenti trascrizioni per chitarra di musiche di Bach, Mozart, Beethoven e Wagner, un quadrumvirato di geni musicali capaci di far tremare i polsi a chiunque e che, comunque, non hanno mai scritto per chitarra.

Qui la genialità e la sensibilità di Llobet: trascrivere, tradurre, trasportare queste musiche perchè fossero suonate da una sei corde. Trascrizioni raramente eseguite in pubblico, dal carattere quasi intimo, confidenziale, non solo in ragione del carattere del chitarrista catalano ma anche della scarsa attenzione dedicata alle trascrizioni, ritenute spesso e volentieri semplici banalizzazioni dei brani originali.

Credo che questo non corrisponda al vero: questo cd unisce due profonde intelligenze musicali, quella di un virtuoso sensibile e da troppo tempo lasciato nell'ombra e quella di un interprete eccezionale che ha saputo riscoprire e identificarsi in questa musica. Aggiungere altro sarebbe superfluo, le chitarre parlano da sole.

"Oltreché evidenziare la caratura di Miguel Llobet quale vero titano della musica della chitarra moderna, questi arrangiamenti tutti, dai più intimisti - anche talvolta in forma di 'frammento' - ai più formalmente compiuti, spingono la sensibilità dell'interprete oltre i confini del repertorio più propriamente riconosciuto come 'chitarristico', se non altro offrendo la possibilità di un viaggio fuori dell'ordinario."