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First Recording of Robert Beaser's Guitar Concerto Released on LINN Records

Jun. 01, 2017

First Recording of Robert Beaser's <em>Guitar Concerto</em> Released on LINN Records

The world premiere commercial recording of Robert Beaser’s Guitar Concerto is released this month on LINN Records, featuring performances by the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and virtuoso soloist Eliot Fisk, conducted by José Serebrier. The album also features new recordings of Beaser’s Notes on a Southern Sky, Evening Prayer and Ground O.

The two guitar works on the album, the solo piece Notes on a Southern Sky, originally composed in 1980 and here recorded in a newly revised version, along with the Guitar Concerto, were written specifically for Fisk who describes them as “epic works of historical importance in the history of the guitar.” The variety of styles in Beaser’s Guitar Concerto perfectly exploits Fisk's dazzling agility; the energetic “Chains and Hammers,” with its expressive swings and flourishes, contrasts with the hypnotic, meditative theme of the stately and elegiac ‘Tombeau.” “Phrygian Pick” combines the Andalusian and bluegrass styles, both of which are iconic and idiomatic to the guitar tradition.

Watch Beaser and Fisk discuss the work, below:

View the score of Beaser’s Guitar Concerto:

In the hands of the RSNO, the tone poem Evening Prayer is elevated to its highest technical plane. Originally composed for the Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra, the work shares the sophistication and melodic and harmonic beauty which characterizes Beaser’s style. Ground O captures the emotions of the events of September 11th, characterized by an ethereal tintinnabulation of soft piano, percussion and harp sounds surrounding a fragile solo violin line.

The extensive album booklet includes a foreword by composer John Corigliano, performance notes by Eliot Fisk and José Serebrier, and detailed insight into the works from Robert Beaser. 

The album Beaser: Guitar Concerto will be available worldwide on June 9 and in the UK on June 23.

For more information on Robert Beaser, including digital perusal scores, visit schott-music.com. 

Robert Beaser
Guitar Concerto (2009)
for guitar and orchestra
2.1(ca).2.2-2.2.1.1-timp.1perc-str
23’ 

Notes on a Southern Sky (1980)
for guitar
13’ 

Evening Prayer (2008)
for orchestra 
3(2.pic)3(2.ca)3(2.bcl)3(2.cbsn)-4.3.3.btbn-timp-4perc-str
15’

Ground O (2010)
for orchestra
pic.1.2.2.2-4.2.3.btbn.1-timp.3perc-hp.pno-str
6’ 

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