Fate decreed otherwise, however, when José – like Federico García Lorca – was executed by a Falangist firing squad on 11 October 1936. From this arresting opener, we move on to a true rarity: the Pavana triste from the 1933 Guitar Sonata by the Burgos-born composer Antonio José (1902-1936), an emotionally intense movement whose pungent harmonies and delicate gestures (wonderfully conveyed by Shibe) hint at the genius that led Maurice Ravel to declare ‘He will become the Spanish composer of our century’.
POULENC SARABANDE GUJITAR FULL
Its focus on the Franco-Spanish repertoire is an attempt, in Shibe’s own words, ‘to get over my apparent aversion to the sentimentality of the Spanish repertoire traditionally associated with the guitar.’ And he does so in inimitable style by presenting a programme with a pronounced meditative quality: melancholy and nostalgic, but full of wonder at the kaleidoscope of expressiveness it reveals.Īlthough most of the works on the disc have a distinctively inward quality, the recital opens with a burst of extroversion in the shape of the Miller’s Dance from Manuel de Falla’s Andalusian-infused 1919 opera The Three-Cornered Hat, in a dazzling guitar transcription which, even in its opening few bars, reveals the sheer range of colour and touch that Shibe brings to the instrument, with carefully deployed vibrato, dynamic shading and attack. It’s entitled simply Camino, a reference to the Camino de Santiago, or ‘Way of St James’, the traditional pilgrims’ routes to the shrine of St James at Santiago de Compostela, in Galicia, northwest Spain. And it’s a fair bet that his latest release, the first under a new exclusive contract with Pentatone, will feature among our top picks of 2021. Bach’s lute music, won our Disc of the Year award. His 2020 album BACH, featuring brilliantly idiomatic guitar realisations of J.S.
In repertoire ranging from John Dowland to Steve Reich’s Electric Counterpoint and Julia Wolfe’s LAD, by way of Britten, Lennox Berkeley and Malcolm Arnold, he has demonstrated not only prodigious technical capabilities but also a deep musicality, evident both in his playing and in his compellingly structured programmes. Since his first solo disc for the Delphian label, Dreams & Fancies in 2017, Scottish guitarist Sean Shibe has established a reputation as one of the most sensitive and imaginative musicians on the scene today. Camino is the first fruit of an exclusive collaboration with PENTATONE. Multi-award-winning guitarist Sean Shibe brings a fresh and innovative approach to the traditional classical guitar, while also exploring contemporary music and repertoire for electric guitar. In that respect, Camino also documents Shibe’s personal quest to overcome the challenges of a time dominated by Covid-19, and to ultimately see the world anew. Shibe has deliberately granted Mompou a central role on this album, as his music demonstrates that melancholy, aimlessness and a whole host of other feelings are not things to be avoided or fixed or solved, but experiences to be felt deeply: not with sad nostalgia, but with genuine wonder and excitement at what this means for the future. Camino is guitarist Sean Shibe’s first PENTATONE album, an introspective programme exploring French-Spanish musical borders, a pilgrimage leading from Ravel’s Pavane pour une Infante défunte, Satie’s Gymnopédie no.1 and Gnossiennes 1 and 3, Poulenc’s Sarabande, De Falla’s Miller’s Dance and Homaje, pour le Tombeau de Debussy and José’s Pavana triste all the way to Mompou’s Canços i dansas 6 and 10, as well as his Suite compostelana.
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