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Manuel Ponce (1882-1948) was the leading composer of his generation in Mexico, educated in Berlin and Bologna. He also spent much of his later life abroad (he spent the 20s and early 1923s in Paris, collaborating with Dukas and Albéniz), but Mexico remained close to him throughout, composing under the influence of Mexican folklore, baijo Mexican songs, mariachi and other artistic traditions of his country, and editing various Mexican music magazines and collecting and publishing Mexican folk music. He also collaborated with Segovia, whom he met in 1932 and with whom he remained a lifelong friend. He composed most of his guitar works for him. It was at the behest of a friend, who requested a composition of "pure Spanish character", that he wrote the Sonatina meridional, which he published in 1923. The two songs for guitar belong to the cycle of Three Mexican Folk Songs, which he composed between 27 and XNUMX. Like other compositions for guitar by Manuel Ponce, these also belong to the most performed guitarist's repertoire.
He was called the “Chopin of the guitar” and is considered by many to be the greatest guitar composer of all time. Agustín Barrios Magoré (1885-1944) came from a remote part of Paraguay, a small town in the southern part of the country, where he began playing his father’s guitar at the age of seven. He soon devoted himself entirely to music and moved to Uruguay, which became his new homeland, where he pursued a career as a guitarist, playing throughout South America. His works for guitar are distinguished by their use of extended playing techniques, which he uses with a distinctive finesse and taste. His works exude a strong atmosphere, and among the most impressive is the Choro da Saudade, in rondo form, with a wistful main theme – which exudes a typical melancholy, or feeling of Saudade, which means longing and nostalgia for home. The piece was composed in 1929. Folklore was an important part of Barrios' inspiration – such as Caazapá, a Paraguayan polka, a type of popular dance or song in Paraguay. But even when it comes to a folk melody like in this piece, it gives rise to the poetry of Barrios' language, which uses all the different expressive possibilities of the guitar.
In his long career, Boris Papandopulo (1906 -1991) created one of the largest and most diverse oeuvres in Croatian music. He developed broad interests as a child, growing up with his mother, an opera singer of European rank, Maja Strozzi, and his uncle Tito Strozzi, a theater actor, director, and writer, immersed in the musical and theater milieu from his earliest days. He studied with the most influential participants in the then musical life in Croatia, Fran Lhotka, Franjo Dugan, Antun Dobronić, and earned a diploma in composition in 1929 with Blagoje Bersa, and after the Academy of Music in Zagreb, he continued his studies at the New Vienna Conservatory. Papandopulo's oeuvre includes almost five hundred works, from solo works for almost all types of musical instruments and voice, chamber, vocal-instrumental, concertante, to orchestral, in which he shows a variety of inspirations, ranging from archaic vocal harmonies, folklore, through baroque, to contemporary avant-garde and popular music, easily incorporating a variety of musical styles and techniques into his eclectic musical expression. Folklore is also evident in the composition Three Games for Guitar Solo, which is sometimes also found under the title Three Croatian Dances. The first movement mixes the influences of stylized baroque dance with those originating from archaic Dalmatian harmonies, perhaps a second present in the dances and songs of the Dalmatian hinterland. In the second movement, he skillfully plays with the Istrian scale, creating a mood that balances between timeless resignation and the mystery that these specific harmonies exude. The last movement is based on a rudimentary folk bass with an alternation of tonic and dominant, over which an imaginative improvisation-like melody develops, filled with lively accents and dynamic contrasts. The composition was written in 1975 and dedicated to guitarist Marijan Makar.
Although he began as a child prodigy pianist, Joan Manén (1883-1971) switched to the violin at a young age and was soon compared to his famous compatriot, Pablo de Sarasate. As a composer, he was self-taught, composing in a variety of genres – from solo music to opera. His harmony and orchestration were greatly influenced by Richard Strauss, and this is also reflected in his smaller-scale works. His music often draws on Spanish and Catalan folklore, such as the Fantasia Sonata, Op. A-22. Folklore is retained only in fragments, and the work rests on a rich development of original material that develops from the almost lazy lines of the initial melodies, bringing a ramified dramatic development within a single movement. Andrés Segovia, to whom the Fantasia Sonata is dedicated, called it “the most important work composed for the guitar”.
The work of Heitor Villa-Lobos (1987-1959) is inextricably linked to Brazilian folklore, but it goes beyond mere exoticism, just like the music of, for example, Stravinsky, Bartók or Kodály, who also used elements of folklore in their musical language. Villa-Lobos never directly quoted folklore; it was more like an incentive for him to create his own recognizable compositional elements, such as long pedal tones, above which an ambiguous, hypnotic harmony emerges, or irregular rhythms and polyrhythms, with roots in Afro-Brazilian music, the frequent and tireless repetition of small melodic cells and motifs, which bring a magical quality to his music, similar to that of an Indian, and he did not shy away from the use of vivid dissonances. The influence of Johann Sebastian Bach was equally important for Villa-Lobos, and the combination was unique. One example is Prelude No. 3, subtitled Homenagem a Bach (homage to Bach), composed in A minor, in Andante tempo. It is the third of five preludes from 1940, in which he brings typical figurations and harmonies modeled on Bach, but combines them with a soft flow of tempo and again an almost lazy, slow, relaxed flow that clearly conveys the atmosphere of the southern hemisphere. The technically demanding Etude No. 11 is one of the Twelve Etudes for Guitar published in 1953, in which the turbulent arpeggios, in which a moving chromatic melody is laid, evoke the ancient precursor, Bach, but the adventurous harmony nevertheless belongs to the new time.
Slavko Fumić (1912-1945) was one of two guitarist brothers (his brother was Rudolf), born in Zagreb, who began their careers before World War II. Their compositions have been preserved thanks to their friend, the guitar builder Ernest Köröskènyi, who published a selection of their compositions in two albums in 1956. The brothers were very active both as solo guitarists and in a duo, making recordings in the early days of radio broadcasting. Slavko Fumić died prematurely, losing his life in the war, and Rudolf survived him by only a few years. Some of their compositions, such as Slavko Fumić's Nocturne, are still regularly found in the guitarist's repertoire, while one of his preludes was performed by the famous Austrian guitarist Luise Walker.
Tango was and remains the life inspiration and obsession of Astor Piazzolla (1921-1992). He recorded the evolution of this dance and created it. He was a virtuoso on the bandoneon, and he expanded his creative instinct by studying classical composition with Nadia Boulanger in Paris, who encouraged him to establish himself as a tango composer. Encouraged, Piazzolla is on the trail of something new - it will be nuevo tango, a direction that he creates together with a group of musicians with whom he breaks the framework of the previous style, introducing elements of jazz and classical into tango. Although this makes him somewhat controversial in Argentina, he gains enormous popularity in Europe and North America. Invierno Porteño (Winter in Buenos Aires), created in 1969, is part of Cuatro Estaciones Porteñas (Four Seasons in Buenos Aires). The adjective porteño refers to people born in Buenos Aires, indicating in this composition the seasons of that city. Piazzolla pays homage to the tango of Buenos Aires, as well as to the "serious music" of Antonio Vivaldi, whose influence is most evident in the final bars of the composition Invierno Porteño.
Zoran Dukić he got a guitar at the early age of six. Today he is one of the most respected classical guitarists of our time. His concert performances, solo and with the orchestra, leave a lasting impression on the audience and critics. He performed in the most prestigious concert halls around the world, such as the Palau de la Musica in Barcelona, Carnegie Hall in New York, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam and the Tchaikovsky Hall in Moscow.
He graduated from the Academy of Music in Zagreb in the class of Darko Petrinjak and completed his studies in the class of Hubert Käppel at the Hochschule für Musik in Cologne.
In their own tour de force He has won an astonishing number of competitions over the years. He is the only guitarist to have won competitions Andres Segovia in Granada and Palma de Mallorca, as well as at competitions Fernando Ser, Manuel Ponce, Manuel de Falla, Francisco Tarrega and many others. At the largest Spanish guitar competition in Madrid, under the patronage of the royal family, he was awarded first prize and a special prize for the best interpretation of Spanish music, which was awarded for the first time to a guitarist who was not Spanish. This, along with his unique expressiveness and poetry on the guitar, launched his international career.
His enthusiasm and dedication to teaching is equally impressive as his pedagogical work. As a teacher, Zoran has nurtured generations of young classical guitarists and has one of the most successful classes in Europe at the Royal Conservatory of Music in The Hague, and is a visiting artist at the Royal College of Music and Drama in Wales. He has also taught at the Escuela Superior in Barcelona and the Hochschule für Musik in Aachen.
Zoran is also an active chamber musician and is one of the founders of the European Guitar Quartet, the Croatian Guitar Quartet, Trio Cologne, and plays in a duo with Aniella Desiderio. He has recorded CDs for labels in Germany, Spain, Belgium, Brazil, and Canada (among others CDs Bach-Piazzolla, Balkan Muses, Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco: 24 Caprichos de Goya, DEWA, Stefan Soewandi – Guitarworks II, Tárrega - Antonio José – Bach – Takemitsu, Guitar Spring 94)
Zoran has been a D'Addario artist since 2011.
Discounts apply! More information about sales and discounts in the 2024/2025 season. you can find here.
Manuel Ponce
Agustin Barrios Magore
Boris Papandopoulo
Joan Manen
Hector Villa-Lobos
Slavko Fumić
Astor Piazzolla
