John Williams: The Seville Concert from the Royal Alcázar Palace
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Composer: Isaac AlbenizComposer: Johann Sebastian Bach
Composer: Domenico Scarlatti
Composer: Antonio Vivaldi
Composer: Yukihiro Yoko
Composer: Nikita Koshkin
Composer: Agustin Barrios-Mangore
Composer: Joaquin Rodrigo
Conductor: Jose Buenagu
Orchestra: Seville Symphony Orchestra
Edition: Music CD
Format: Extra tracks, Original recording remastered
CD Release Date: 2004-02-24
Music Label: Sony
Soundtracks:
- Suite espa�±ola No. 1, for piano, Op. 47, B. 7: Sevilla (Sevillanas)
- Partita for lute in E major, BWV 1006a (BC L171): Pr�©lude
- Sonata for keyboard in D minor, K. 213 (L. 108) 'The Lover'
- Lute (Chamber) Concerto, for lute (or guitar), 2 violins & continuo in D major, RV 93: 1. Allegro giusto
- Lute (Chamber) Concerto, for lute (or guitar), 2 violins & continuo in D major, RV 93: 2. Largo
- Lute (Chamber) Concerto, for lute (or guitar), 2 violins & continuo in D major, RV 93: 3. Allegro
- Theme and Variations on 'Sakura, Sakura' for guitar
- Usher Waltz, for guitar (after Edgar Allan Poe), Op. 29
- Suite española No. 1, for piano, Op. 47, B. 7: Asturias (Leyenda)
- Un Sue�±o en la Floresta, for guitar
- Concierto de Aranjuez, for guitar & orchestra: Adagio
- Piezas caracterÃ?Âsticas (12), for piano, Op. 92, B. 29: Torre Bermeja
- Suite española No. 1, for piano, Op. 47, B. 7: Granada
- Suite espa�±ola No. 1, for piano, Op. 47, B. 7: C�¡diz
- Cantos de Espa�±a, pieces (5) for piano, Op. 232, B. 44: C�³rdoba
Music reviews of John Williams: The Seville Concert from the Royal Alcázar Palace
Music Review: My song-by-song review of the master guitarist John Williams
Rating: 4 Stars
1. Sevilla (Sevillanas)
--This popular guitar piece is usually played slow and without a strong direct rhythm, such as Williams plays here. While Segovia was responsible for taking the quite mediocre flamenco song and making it more expressive as a classical guitar piece, Williams improved on all those extra notes Segovia put in, by restoring the original dance rhythym (sevilla means dance).
2. Prelude to the Fourth Lute Suite.
--This piece is extremely complex, full of notes and usually satisfies the average listener because it doesn't repeat phrases as much as the other songs in this set. Beginning classical guitarists will hear this and immediately go get the sheet music or tablature for it to start learning it. They are doomed too. The piece is far too advanced. Williams' version here is popular because of how utterly note-for-note flawless it is, in spite of being so complex and difficult that Segovia even said it was impossible to play on guitar!
3. Andante
--I think Amazon.com has mistitled this piece. It is the exact same song as "Sonata in D minor" on the regular CD. But anyway, again, Williams plays flawlessly a difficult piece, but this one is more mellow than the Prelude.
4. I. Allegro Giusto
5. II. Largo
6. III. Allegro
--I personally thought these three movements sounded slightly "rushed", especially the slower second movement "Largo".
7. Sakura Variations
--Williams plays this traditional popular Japanese song several times, each being a different style of the same tune. Nice way to keep things interesting.
8. Usher Waltz, Op.29 (After Edgar Allan Poe)
--This song appears to be nothing but "smart noise", as I like to say. It requires technical feats of skill, but it seems to just spin it's wheels, and would do little more than draw comical smiles if played at a restaurant or club for an audience.
9. Asturias (Leyenda)
--This is a popular piece that just says "spanish pride" all over it. Those who never heard it before would swear this is a soundtrack to a film about wars in old Mexico. While this version is tight, Williams recorded this song back in the 80's on an album called "Spanish Guitar Music", and this earlier version I feel has more power and gusto, while the version on this Seville Concert Album doesn't quite have that earliers gustoin spite of it's own praiseworthy traits.
10. Sueno En La Floresta
--I am a true dedicated fan of John Williams, and I don't like seeing people say he doesn't play with soul, etc. However, while this advanced virtuosic tremelo piece composed by Barrios is technically perfect, it sounds "rushed"; and those small pauses and breaks that give a piece "soul" are all but absent here. He should have slowed it down just a bit. Did Williams ever play this piece with soul? Yes. In 1978, found on his album "John Williams plays barrios".
11. Adagio
--Otherwise titled "Concerto de Arajaunez", guitar + symphony piece composed by Joquin Rodrigo, and intended to highlight the guitar, by giving it most of the limelight. This is very different from the orchestra concertos in songs 4, 5 and 6 on this same album. Williams gives the guitar true color and expression in each of the solo spots.
12. Torre Bermeja
--Some songs just have a very thick authentic "Mexican" sound to them more so than others, and this would be such one. It was Segovia who popularized the notion that no classical guitarist should play one song the same way all the time. I personally feel that the earlier version Williams recorded back in 1958 when he was 17, despite the lessor quality clarity in the recording, is much more expressive. That was when Williams was fresh out of Segovia school.
13. Granada
--A soft and moving Spanish piece, the one you'd want to have playing when your girlfriend walks in the door to eat the gourmet dinner with you under soft lights. This is the stuff I listen to when everybody is out of the house and I can just sit back with nothing but this album and a six-pack of beer and just *V E G* for a precious 3 minutes. Or I'll put the CD player on repeat and turn it into an hour.
14. Cadiz
--A rather lively swashbuckling piece that didn't do a damn thing for me personally. I am a classical guitarist, and this one will never be in my repetoire.
15. Cordoba
--A very expressive piece with a slow beautiful yet haunting beginning, evoking images of the Mosk in Spain. The main body of the song requires some of the most impossible guitar fingering, and yet Williams brings it out without buzzing strings or squeaks. In the video "The Seville Concert", Williams introduces this piece by saying that Cordoba is his personal favorite.
--
Overall, while the extra songs on this special edition CD are interesting, they are not sufficient to justify the extra price, and IMO it is only Cordoba which justifies the increased price. The average person, whether amatuer guitarist or not should be satisfied with what amounts to a culmination of Williams' unbelievably accurate playing. This album however will not satisfy guitar enthusiasts who prioritize feeling and soul more than technical perfection. He simply just doesn't "take his time" often enough for that crowd of listeners.
If I had produced this album, I would have shelved "Cadiz", and put William's latest recording of "Recuerdos de la Alhambra" on it instead; the famous tremelo piece by Tarrega which is the "most" Spanish sounding piece in all the guitar literature in guitarist majority opinion. Cadiz is simply awful. I never thought any noise could be worse than "Usher Waltz". Boy was i wrong!
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