Sunday 29^th September 2024

3.00 pm

Runtime: 120 minutes

Colyer-Fergusson Hall

The Gulbenkian Arts Centre

University of Kent

Craig Ogden, classical guitar

Biography

Described by BBC Music Magazine as "A worthy successor to Julian Bream", Australian born guitarist Craig Ogden is one of the most exciting artists of his generation. He studied guitar from the age of seven and percussion from the age of thirteen. Craig Ogden has performed concertos with many of the world’s leading orchestras and is the most sought-after guitarist for chamber music in the UK. He regularly appears as soloist and chamber musician at major venues and collaborates with the UK’s top artists and ensembles.

Numerous composers have written works specially for him and he has recently given world première performances of guitar concertos by Andy Scott, David Gordon (double with accordionist Miloš Milivojević), David Knotts (with the BBC Concert Orchestra, recorded for BBC Radio 3, filmed for BBC4 TV) and William Lovelady with the English Chamber Orchestra for Music in Country Churches with HM the King in attendance. The work received its London première in November 2022 at Cadogan Hall. In January 2023, Craig gave the world première of a guitar concerto by Greg Caffrey with the Ulster Orchestra in Belfast, recorded by BBC 3.  

One of the UK’s most recorded guitarists, Craig has accumulated an acclaimed discography for Chandos, Virgin/EMI, Nimbus, Hyperion, Sony and five chart-topping albums for Classic FM. Recent recordings include a solo recital disc for Chandos, Craig Ogden in Concert, a new arrangement of the Goldberg Variations by J.S. Bach with violinist David Juritz and cellist Tim Hugh for Nimbus, Environments II guitar concerto by Irish composer Greg Caffrey with the Ulster Orchestra and Dancing with Piazzolla with the London Tango Quintet, released in February 2024 and selected as album of the week by BBC Radio 3. He frequently records for film and has presented programmes for BBC Radio 3, BBC Northern Ireland, and ABC Classic FM in Australia.

Craig Ogden is Director of Guitar at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, Adjunct Fellow of the University of Western Australia and Associate Artist at The Bridgewater Hall. Craig Ogden plays a 2011 Greg Smallman guitar and strings made by D’Addario.

Programme Notes

                                                                                             Federico Moreno Torroba (1891 – 1982)

Sonatina

1.Allegretto

Madroños                                                                               Frederico Moreno Torroba was one of a number of pupils of Francisco Tarrega (considered to be the father of classical guitar in early 20th century Spain) who contributed significantly to the classical guitar repertoire. Moreno Torroba is often associated with the zarzuela, a traditional Spanish musical form. Directing several opera companies, Moreno Torroba helped introduce the zarzuela to international audiences. However, he is probably best known for his compositions for the classical guitar, many of which were dedicated to either Maria Angélica Funes or Andrés Segovia. The Sonatina was composed for Segovia in the late 1950's and clearly reveals the influence of Spanish folk music that inspired Torroba throughout his life. 

‘Madroños’ (published in 1954) is the Spanish word for ‘arbutus’, a small tree native to Spain that fruits and flowers simultaneously. The music displays Torroba’s commitment to Spanish idioms, as he believed that only by embracing Iberian music inspiration would Spanish music receive the international recognition it deserved.

Napoléon Coste (1805 – 1883)

Fantasie Dramatique "Le Départ", Op.31                               Napoléon Coste was a French guitarist and composer who was first taught the guitar by his mother and later studied under Fernando Sor in Paris. Coste was influenced by the Early Classical-Romantic composers of the time including Hector Berlioz and Ludwig van Beethoven. He was a prolific composer whose works took inspiration from a wide range of sources including nature, opera and historic events and included studies and other pedagogical works. His Opus 31 actually comprises two pieces, Le Départ (The Departure) and Le Retour (The Return), and was inspired by the events of 29 December 1855, when the French marched into Paris after their siege of Sebastopol.

J.S.Bach (1685 – 1750)

Prelude, Fugue & Allegro BWV.998                                         J.S.Bach is believed to have composed the Prelude for Lute or Harpsichord in the early to mid-1740's. Although composed at the keyboard, this work seems to have been conceived as a lute composition as the range is confined to that of the lute and because of its lutenistic style.

The Prelude displays an extensive use of style brise whereby chords are spun out over several voices rather than presented as block chords. The da capo fugue is a rare form that Bach only used in this and a few other late compositions. An exposition precedes an extended development after which the exposition is restated in full. The Allegro, in a straight-forward binary form provides a brilliant conclusion to the work.

Heitor Villa-Lobos (1887 – 1959)

Chôros no.1                                                                             Chôros no.1 is one of fourteen chôros composed by Heitor Villa-Lobos in France in the 1920’s and the only one for solo guitar. This collection encompasses works for a range of ensembles from solo instruments to large orchestra to choir with the ambition of creating a comprehensive geographic panorama of all musical currents of the Brazilian folklore. Chôros no.1 is firmly in the style of the original chôro (the street music of Brazil at the turn of the 20^th century), unambiguously tonal with a typical series of harmonic progressions but punctuated by unexpected melodic leaps and charming pauses. 

Quique Sinesi (1960 …)

Cielo Abierto                                                                           Quique Sinesi is considered one of the most important guitarists and composers of the current scene in Argentina for his extensive national and international career. In his music he incorporates elements of Folklore, Rio de la Plata, Tango, Jazz and Contemporary Classical. Cielo Abierto (Open Sky) is one of his best known guitar works featuring an almost constant bass riff beneath a series of inventive variations, including percussive effects, creating a lively and dynamic picture of contemporary Argentinian music for solo guitar.

INTERVAL

Domenico Scarlatti (1685 – 1757)

Sonata K.380 in E major                                                        Sonata K.322 in A major

Domenico Scarlatti was born in Naples, where he became organist at the royal chapel while still in his teens. He subsequently worked in Rome (where he won a trial of keyboard skill against Handel), then moved to Lisbon as music teacher to Princess Maria Barbara. When she married the future Ferdinand VI of Spain, Scarlatti moved to Madrid as music master to the royal household, remaining there for the rest of his life. Given that Scarlatti spent much of his career in Spain, it is no surprise that a number of his 555 keyboard sonatas imitate the guitar. The works here are the Sonata in A major, KK 322 (from a group of Scarlatti arrangements by Peter Batchelor (1974 - …) and Richard Wright (1943 - 2008), and the Sonata in E major, KK 380, one of Scarlatti’s most famous works, here in an arrangement by Owen Bunting (1995…).

Nikita Koshkin (1956 …)

The Usher-Waltz                                                                    Russian composer-guitarist Nikita Koshkin’s Usher Waltz (Usher-valze, 1984) has become a contemporary favorite of both guitarists and audiences.  Koshkin based his piece on a twisted horror short story by Edgar Allen Poe called The Fall of the House of Usher (published in 1839). Though a waltz does weave its way in and out of the Koshkin piece, there is also much other drama to be found—snapping strings, dissonant and menacing passages, eerie harmonics; quite a range of strange, demanding of both guitarist and audience.

Philip Houghton (1954 – 2017)

Kinkachoo I Love You                                                             Phillip Houghton was an Australian classical guitarist and composer. Born in Melbourne, he began studying music at the age of 20 at Melba Conservatorium of Music. After a year, he then began studying privately with well-known classical pianist and guitarist Sebastian Jorgenson at the Montsalvat Artists Colony in Eltham, Victoria.

Although Houghton had little compositional training, his music has achieved critical acclaim. In particular, his piece Stélé was recorded by John Williams in his 1998 album The  Guitarist. Houghton composed music for film and Television, including the motion picture "The Custodian" (John Dingwall) and the animation series Plasmo (Tony Lawrence). He wrote a large number of unpublished sketches for electronic media and produced a record of his own experimental improvisations on electric guitar and piano frame, distributed privately.

Houghton lived for many years in Sydney, teaching from his home in Petersham and then Summer Hill. He was highly regarded as a teacher, with a profound understanding of guitar technique and musical interpretation. He died, unexpectedly, within months of his returning to live in Melbourne in 2017. 

"Kinkachoo, I love you", is a mesmeric, subtle, fluid piece which retains the same pedal note throughout. Houghton's subtitle reads -  "... the Kinkachoo, mythical bird, once wounded in the Spirit-Realm, heals and flies into the world". The piece is dedicated "To Lyndall, to all my friends, life, love and the whole mysterious beautiful thing”. 

Marin Marais (1656 – 1728)

Les Voix Humaines                                                                 Marin Marais was a French composer and viol player. He studied composition with Jean-Baptiste Lully, often conducting his operas, and with master of the bass viol Monsieur de Sainte-Colombe for six months. In 1676 he was hired as a musician to the royal court of Versailles and was successful there, being appointed in 1679 as Ordinaire de la Chambre du Roy pour la Viole, a title he kept until 1725. He composed this work, "The Human Voices", as part of his "Pièces de viole", c. 1701.

JoaquínRodrigo (1901 – 1999)

Tres Piezas Españolas                                                                   1.Fandango

      2.Passacaglia

      3.Zapateado

Joaquín Rodrigo Vidre, 1st Marqués de los Jardines de Aranjuez, was a Spanish composer born in Sagunto (Valencia) in 1901and died in Madrid in 1999.  In 1954 he was made Vice-President of the Spanish Section of the International Society for Contemporary Music (SCIM) and composed Tres piezas españolas, for guitar, dedicated to Andrés Segovia. Of 13 minutes duration, this is a fitting finish to Craig Ogden’s recital.

Thank You!