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Claudio Arrau - The Ambassador Auditorium Recitals on CD

Born in Chile, Claudio Arrau (1903-1991) was

one of the greatest pianists of the 20th century,

an artist who was totally serious about his role in

life, a man completely dedicated to the music of

the great composers who shared his insights and

understanding of their work with his public.

Where other famous pianists play the piano for

excitement, power or display, Arrau plays to probe,

to divine, to interpret. Says Arrau, 'An interpreter

must give his blood to the work interpreted.' Arrau

is definitely not onesided or without spiritual

grandeur. Having won particular fame as a great

Beethoven interpreter, he is no less celebrated for

his Mozart, Schubert, Chopin, Liszt, Schumann,

Brahms and Debussy. Among the famed peers of

his generation, it is a range without equal.

Located on the campus of Ambassador College in

Pasadena, California, the 1262 seat Ambassador

Auditorium was a major West Coast concert

hall between 1974 and 1995 presenting around

2500 concerts, and attracted the greatest

instrumentalists and orchestras.

role in the musical life of our ensemble. It's musical

complexity and the depth of expression which

Mozart achieves through only three voices are

seemingly miraculous: it is one of those pieces which

constantly rewards rehearsal. One simply never gets

tired of playing it!

When the opportunity to record this masterpiece

arose, we were faced with the challenge of what

to play alongside it. Our dear friend Rob Fokkens

had written two short movements for string trio

which seemed to fit beautifully with Mozart's music:

Rob's translucent harmonic and rhythmic style

offers unique expressive possibilities. The chance

to commission the great Julian Joseph was not

to be missed, and his work, Bring it!, wonderfully

demonstrates his brilliance and lyricism, and the

subtly of his harmonic language. We sincerely hope

you enjoy listening to the music on this album as

much as we loved preparing it!

to Islamic Iberia or the Al-Andalusian era of Spain

between the 8th-15th centuries. Yet the fi rst men? on

of Flamenco by name is not un? l 1774, where it

appears in an epistolary novel, Cartas Marruecas, by

the playwright and soldier, Jose de Cadalso y Vazquez. In collabora? on with soparno Victoria Couper, kanun

player, Konstan? nos Glynos, and oud/Flamenco

guitarist, Ignacio Lusardi Monteverde, this album seeks

to explore this ques? on by tracing the infl uences on

Flamenco through Arabic music alongside Sephardic

song and the Spanish composers of the late-16th to

18th centuries. What happened in these intervening centuries?