 En cette période de fêtes religieuses et profanes, et même à l’occasion de voyages, d’anniversaires ou de fêtes plus ordinaires, qui n’a jamais eu l’envie de signifier par une carte de vœux son affection à une pluralité de destinataire ? C’est exactement le dessein mis en œuvre par Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco (1895-1968) pour exprimer, à l’aide de compositions faisant appel à des ensembles instrumentaux variés, son amitié à une cinquantaine d’amis (Jascha Heifetz, André Previn...), d’élèves (Eugene Robin Escovado...), ou de prestigieux guitaristes (Andrés Segovia, Christopher Parkening...). Parmi les 53 pièces constituant son Opus 170, le présent enregistrement a extrait 21 pièces spécifiquement dédiées à la guitare et à ses serviteurs les plus représentatifs et reconnus. Quoique le compositeur n’ait considéré ces pièces que comme des œuvres mineures, on ne peut qu’admirer la science avec laquelle il a su utiliser toutes les ressources de l’instrument pour portraicturer en quelque sorte le caractère, le style et le tempérament des dédicataires. Le "Rondel on the name of Siegfried Behrend", rend parfaitement hommage au guitariste polymathe allemand (1933-1990). Oscar Ghiglia (1938), longtemps assistant d’Andrés Ségovia, est honoré d’une "Romanza sul nome". Alirio Diaz (1923-2016) est naturellement le dédicataire d’une "Canción venezolana". On ne s’étonnera pas de voir Laurindo Almeida (1917-1995) associé à son pays natal dans une "Brasileira sul nome"…. Et puisque le nom est ici à l’origine de l’inspiration compositrice on s’amusera aussi de l’esprit avec lequel Castelnuovo-Tedesco pare le guitariste de jazz Ernest Calabria (1917-1994) d’une "Canzone Calabrese" sur son nom pleine d’humour… Nombreuses sont donc les surprises de cet ensemble de cartes de vœux, superbement servies, par ailleurs, dans l’interprétation inspirée et vibrante de Cristiano Porqueddu, dont ces colonnes ont déjà salué plusieurs fois les mérites. (Jacques-Philippe Saint-Gerand) Between 1953 and 1967, Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco (1895–1968) wrote 53 works for various instrumental ensembles that were collected together as Opus 170 and given the title Greeting Cards. Castelnuovo-Tedesco described them as ‘alphabetic pieces’: he derived their musical themes derived from ascending and descending chromatic scales, in which each note is combined with a letter of the alphabet. On this new album, Cristiano Porqueddu plays the 21 Greeting Cards composed for the guitar. They are small, unexpected homages that Castelnuovo-Tedesco liked to give his friends, to musicians who played his works, to his pupils and occasionally also to people who were not musicians. He later declared them to be minor works, but each of them is filled with affection, regardless of the professional status of the subject. In this imaginary gallery there are thus portrayals of legendary musicians such as Jascha Heifetz and Andrés Segovia alongside several of his students, including André Previn, Christopher Parkening and Eugene Robin Escovado. Castelnuovo-Tedesco made each Greeting Card a vivid portrait of the dedicatee, usually by combining rhythms and atmospheres that reflected nationality, as with the Tonadilla sul nome di Andrés Segovia or the Canción venezolana sul nome di Alirio Díaz. However, there are also more abstract references, such as the Rondel on the name of Siegfried Behrend (No.6) or evocations generated by the name itself: the Fantasia sul nome di Henry e Ronald Purcell (No.38), for instance, or the Volo d’Angeli sul nome di Angelo Gilardino (No.47). What they all have in common is a depth of feeling that transcends their superficial status as ‘occasional’ pieces. The Sardinian guitarist Cristiano Porqueddu has become known as a major interpreter of modern guitar music, not least thanks to his extensive catalogue of recordings on Brilliant Classics. This includes his own music – solo and concertos – as well as albums dedicated to his teacher Angelo Gilardino and wide-ranging collections of works by European and American composers, many of which were composed especially for him.
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