Best known for his composition Concierto de Aranjuez, Spanish composer Joaquín Rodrigo lost his sight completely at age three after contracting diphtheria. But it was Rodrigo’s determination and passion for the music he loved, that resulted in a large catalog of compositions for orchestra, guitar, piano, harp, cello, violin and voice.
In an interview following his death in 1999, his daughter, Cecilia Rodrigo stated that he believed “it was blindness which led him to music, giving him a greater inner world, and that he would probably not have been a musician without it.” She went on to say that he would “write all his compositions in Braille, then dictate them, note by note, bar by bar, to a copyist.”
While studying in Valencia and Paris, Rodrigo had the opportunity to meet and be inspired by musicians Ravel, Stravinsky, Poulenc, deFalla and his future wife and collaborator, Turkish pianist Victoria Kamhi, whom he married in 1933. Shortly after those happy years of courtship, the Rodrigos would suffer from great financial hardship and personal loss.
In 1938 they decided to return to Spain, where, according to Cecilia, “the composer carried in his suitcase the work destined to change his luck: the phenomenally successful Concierto de Aranjuez, for guitar and orchestra,” a cornerstone of the classical guitar repertoire. Although tepidly received at its premiere in 1940, Aranjuez has taken in more royalties than any other Spanish work, and has had formidable success in arrangements for trumpeter Miles Davis, pianist Chick Corea, tenors Placido Domingo and Jose Carreras, and even the Swingle Singers.
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Music: Rodrigo: Concierto de Aranjuez, mvt 1 – Jose Serebrier, NYPO, Sharon Isbin, g