Search - Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Schmidt :: Complete Chamber Works for Guitar

A worthy album of guitar chamber music

Jeremiah Lawson | Seattle, WA United States | 01/21/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Albums devoted entirely to chamber music including the guitar are too rare. I expect a guitar on the average rock, jazz, pop, or country album, but classical guitarists, for some reason want to go it alone all the time. That makes this CD and those of Rachel Gauk and Susan Hoeppner (sic) fun. Castelnuovo-Tedesco was a Jewish Italian composer who expatriated to escape fascism like many other European composers around WW2. His works are pretty conservative compared to Villa-Lobos or Brouwer, who actually played guitar. But what C-T lacks in innovation he makes up for in quality and consistency (two traits Villa-Lobos only had sporadically).The Eclogues are especially nice. The sonatina for flute and guitar shows up in recitals a lot more often and is also a worthy piece. The quintet is fun but the second movement is a bit snoozy."