Paul McIntosh

11/03/14

MUS 123-004

Ricardo Saeb
On Friday, October 31st, I attended an in-class concert. This was a classical guitar
concert and was performed by Ricardo Saeb. Ricardo Saeb is an accomplished classical
guitarist at the University of Kentucky. He performed Concierto de Aranjuez by Joaquin
Rodrigo. This set of music consisted of very complicated music that varied in sound and
speed.
The composer of this set of music is Joaquin Rodrigo. Rodrigo was a Spanish
composer who lived from 1901-1999. At the age of 3, Rodrigo became blind as a result of
an epidemic of diphtheria in the place he lived. Later in his career, Rodrigo said that his
person tragedy is probably what led him to a career in music. Rodrigo is actually a pianist,
but its said that he enriched Spanish music through his concerts for guitar (he didnt
perform but only composed). He is actually best known for his compositions for guitar.
Concierto de Aranjuez happens to be Rodrigos best-known work for guitar and
orchestra. It was the first guitar concierto of the 20th Century. Knowing this now, Im very
grateful to have been given the opportunity to listen to someone perform this live. It was
written in 1939, the year the Spanish War ended and World War II began. Concierto de
Aranjuez consists of three movements: Allegro con spirito, Adagio, and Allegro gentile. Each
movement varies in sound, speed, and difficulty. The piece was originally written and
performed with an orchestra present. Ricardo had the orchestra play on speakers along
with him and it really gave us the full effect of the entire piece of music.
Allegro con spirito is the beginning movement. Allegro means a piece of music with
a brisk (fast) tempo. Con spirito means with lively spirit. This movement had a very fast
tempo and was very up beat and festive. It is also played with a flamenco style guitar.

Paul McIntosh

11/03/14

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Flamenco is a folk art and culture in Spain. The flamenco style of playing really gave this
movement the festive and lively spirit that was intended. One thing I liked about the piece
is that it started out with a fast strumming of chords mixed with some single notes. It then
quickly switches to single notes and the orchestra chimes in. I really like this transition
because the orchestra then comes in and repeats what the guitar has played. Then the
guitar and orchestra play together and creates this enormous sound that is very epic but
still holds true to the lively spirit tone. This movement consisted of some extremely fast
strumming that really impressed me. The whole movement was very exciting and fast
paced.
The second movement, Adagio, changes a lot from the first. Adagio means the music
has a slow tempo. This piece had a very sad sound to it due to the tempo and the tone of the
music. It starts out with the slow strumming of a lot of different chords. Although it had a
sad feeling to it, this movement had a beautiful sound overall. It transitioned from the
chords to single notes. The overall tempo was still slow, but the guitar played some
extremely fast notes. At one point, Ricardo was playing some ridiculously fast hammer-ons.
The piece had some strong emotional sounds to it and sort of told a story throughout. The
guitar varied in speed and would rapidly change from slow strumming to insanely fast
hammer-ons. At some instances, Ricardo would start on a lower note and quickly go up
what seemed like a scale. Although the piece was sad, it had a sense of hope along with it. I
especially liked the ending of this movement because the notes get higher and higher and
then it just ends on a high note.
The last movement, Allegro gentile, brings back a fast tempo. Allegro gentile means
a fast tempo but not as fast as the first allegro. The piece starts off with a very pleasing and

Paul McIntosh

11/03/14

MUS 123-004

pretty sound. One thing I liked is how he held his fingers on a chord and would take the
same finger formation up and down the frets for different sounds. This piece had a very
happy sound to it. I noticed that on some chords, he would strum with what seemed like
the back of his hand. It seemed like each finger strummed the chord separately but still
created just one chord. I also like how he would pluck two strings at once to create a very
nice sound on the guitar.
The whole set of music was very beautiful. It covered a wide variety of speeds,
sounds, emotions, and styles of music. This set of music has been my favorite out of all the
in-class concerts. I now see why this set of music was Rodrigos best-known piece. I would
like to hear more of Rodrigos music. Also, Ricardo did an outstanding job on such a
complicated piece. I would like to hear more of his playing as well.

Paul McIntosh

11/03/14

MUS 123-004

References
Adagio. The Free Dictionary By Farlex. November 2, 2014.
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/adagio.
Allegro Con Spirito. The Free Dictionary By Farlex. November 2, 2014.
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/allegro+con+spirito.
Calcraft, Raymond. Joaquin Rodrigo Vidre (1901-1999) Marqus de los Jardines de
Aranjuez Life and Works. Joaquin Rodrigo. November 2, 2014. http://www.joaquinrodrigo.com/index.php/en/biografia/10-autor/biografia/15-biografia-larga.
Faucher, Franois. History Of Flamenco. Classical Guitar Illustrated History. November 2,
2014. http://www.classicalguitarmidi.com/history/flamenco.html.
Joaquin Rodrigo. Naxos. November 2, 2014.
http://www.naxos.com/person/Joaquin_Rodrigo/26303.htm.