Antonio Ruiz-Pipó (1934-1997)
Sonate "Pur un taxi"
Seis Canciones y danzas
Requilorio
Preludio y tocata
Canto libre y floreo
Preludios
Series 2
Tiento por Tiento
Hommage à Antonio Cabezon
Estancias
Laudes
Nenia
Otonales

Michele Di Filippo, guitare

Le compositeur Antonio Ruiz-Pipo est né en 1934 à Grenade. Sensibilisé dès son plus jeune âge au flamenco, il reçoit une formation musicale (Piano et composition) à Barcelone auprès d'Alicia de Larrocha et de Xavier Montsalvatge. Suite à l'obtention d'une bourse en 1949, il entame une carrière de concertiste puis s'installe à Paris où il fréquente Yves Nat, Alfred Cortot et Maurice Ohana tout en faisant de fréquents allers-retour à Barcelone. Il compose alors de nombreuses œuvres pour guitare dédiées à ses amis guitaristes dont Narciso Yepes et Alberto Ponce. Ce double CD comprend l'intégralité de ce corpus. Composé en 1966, sa Sonate « pur un taxi » délaisse la structure traditionnelle pour abonder de petits motifs mélodiques et rythmiques enchâssés à la suite. Si les Cantiones y dansas et reprennent assez fidèlement des chansons et des danses espagnoles, les Ochos Préludes s'inspirent de la tradition flamenco tout en usant d'un langage buissonnier. Quelques pièces frisent l'atonalité (Requilorio, Canto libre y floréo) d'autres puisent dans le répertoire ancien et baroque (Hommage à Antonio de Cabezon, Préludio y Toccata). Les derniers opus (Estancias, Laudes, Otonales) témoignent d'un lâcher-prise de l’écriture, sans direction thématique donnée et aux limites de l'improvisation. Même lorsqu'il joue rasgueado le guitariste Michelle di Filippo fait montre d'une objectivité un peu froide. (Jérôme Angouillant)

Born in Granada in 1934, Antonio Ruiz-Pipó learnt the guitar in his youth but trained as a pianist in Barcelona, where he was taught by Frank Marshall, doyen of the Spanish piano school made famous by Alicia de Larrocha. Further study in Paris refined Ruiz-Pipó’s compositional technique, and he taught at the École Normale from 1977 until his death in 1997. Despite his early experience as a guitarist, Ruiz-Pipó did not write from the perspective of a ‘guitarist-composer’ such as Ponce, Brouwer or Dyens. Rather, his relationship with guitar was both visceral and remote, reflecting the physical distance separating him from his heritage. Nevertheless, there is an unmistakably Hispanic character to pieces such as the Seis Canciones y danzas and two sets of Preludes which made him a favourite composer for the guitarist Narciso Yepes, who became one of the foremost exponents of classical guitar in the generation after Segovia. The Spanish folk tradition is seamlessly integrated by Ruiz-Pipó within his own, distinctive and evolving musical voice, which bridges the divide between a tonal-modal centre and free chromaticism. The collection begins with the upbeat Sonata ‘pur un taxi’ and concludes with the late, autumnal moods of the five Otonales. Highlights in between include a light- hearted Requilorio (set of ‘fripperies’) premiered by Yepes, and homages to Cabezon and Mudarra, two great vihuelist-composers of the 16th century. There is a forward-looking edge yet also nostalgic patina to Ruiz-Pipó’s guitar writing which lends this music an individual profile that stands out in the landscape of the Spanish guitar in the 20th century. The album marks the label debut of the Italian guitarist Michele Di Filippo, born in 1994, who is also an experienced composer for his instrument.