Music Album Review: ‘Great Performances: Rodrigo: Concierto de Aranjuez/Fantasia para un gentilhombre’

🎼 Echoes of Spain: A Journey Through Rodrigo and Albéniz with John Williams

There’s something quietly transcendent about hearing the guitar sing in the hands of John Williams. Not the film composer, but the Australian virtuoso whose fingers seem to coax memory itself from the strings. In Great Performances: Rodrigo: Concierto de Aranjuez/Fantasia para un gentilhombre, Williams partners with the Philharmonia Orchestra under Louis Frémaux to revisit two of Joaquín Rodrigo’s most evocative works—and adds a luminous coda with five arrangements of Isaac Albéniz’s piano compositions, reimagined for guitar.

This digital release from Sony Classical isn’t just a reissue of the 1980s CBS Masterworks album. It’s a reimagining. Gone are the dual orchestras of the earlier recording; here, the Philharmonia provides a unified, elegant backdrop to Williams’ expressive playing. The result is a more cohesive listening experience, one that feels like a single, uninterrupted journey through Spanish landscapes—orange groves, palatial gardens, and sun-drenched plazas.

Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez and Fantasia para un gentilhombre are the heart of the album, and Williams plays them with reverence and restraint. He doesn’t dominate the orchestra; he converses with it. The Adagio movement, in particular, is a masterclass in emotional nuance—melancholy without melodrama, intimate without indulgence.

But it’s in the Albéniz selections that Williams truly shines as both interpreter and arranger. Originally written for piano, these pieces—Granada, Asturias, Sevilla, Mallorca, and Córdoba—are transformed into guitar meditations that feel both ancient and immediate. Williams’ touch is delicate yet assured, his phrasing imbued with a sense of longing that never veers into sentimentality.

There’s a small hiccup in the digital edition: duplicate tracks in the Fantasia para un gentilhombre suite appear in some versions, creating confusion in the tracklist. But this is a minor flaw in an otherwise exquisite offering.

For lovers of classical guitar, Spanish music, or simply the art of musical storytelling, this album is a quiet triumph. It doesn’t shout—it whispers. And in those whispers, you’ll hear Spain.