Castelnuovo-Tedesco: Quintet for guitar and string quartet, Op. 143

Volume 5 of Segovia’s 1950s American recordings includes music by composers of various nationalities, (Italian, Spanish, Polish, Argentinian, Venezuelan, and Swiss), demonstrating the international appeal of the guitar.

The diversity of musical styles featured is considerable, ranging from the folkloric appeal of South America to the more esoteric inwardness of European composers.

The famous Slovak guitarist Miriam Rodriguez Brullova pays tribute to Andres Segovia in this original selection of Spanish works for quartet, from Arriaga, a precocious genius who died at 20, to creator of the Quintet Op.143, Castlenuovo-Tedesco (1895-1968).

Of the composers who wholeheartedly embraced guitar music, Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco stands out. Having demonstrated an innate musical talent at an early age, he earned a degree in piano and composition while still very young under the guidance of Ildebrando Pizzetti. By the 1930’s, Castelnuovo-Tedesco was among the best known Italian composers and widely appreciated outside of Italy: important musicians such as Toscanini, Piatigorsky, Casella, Heifetz, Gieseking and Segovia performed his music. In fact, it was out of his friendship with Segovia that his love for the guitar was born and in the final years of his life he produced some of his most intimate and autobiographical compositions, written expressly for guitar. At the end of the 1930’s the enactment of anti-Semitic laws forced him to leave Italy and in 1939 he moved to the United States where he began to work, composing sound tracks for the film industry. However, his reputation as an extraordinarily well educated and refined composer spread quickly throughout Hollywood and allowed him to move beyond film to become a highly sought after teacher of music.

Of all the ‘philharmonic’ or non-guitarist composers inspired to write for Andrés Segovia, none has left a larger or more varied body of work for the instrument than Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco. Looking back over his works late in life Ravelian mood, Castelnuovo-Tedesco cited the first guitar Concerto, Op.99, as his most successful work for the guitar. Today, more than 60 years after its composition, we can once again love this piece for its formal perfection and contrapuntal virtuosity. The slow movement, written as Castelnuovo-Tedesco was fleeing for his life from Mussolini’s Italy, is tinged with a uniquely lyrical nostalgia. Like many other artists of the time also fleeing the twin disasters of war and persecution, Castelnuovo-Tedesco settled in California. Here he was forced by economic necessity to compose for films and television.