Ernest Shand (1868-1924)
Tzigane, op. 66
Songe d'Amour, op. 57
Six Pièces
Légende, op. 201
Pièce caractèrisiques, op. 77
Air pour la guitare, op. 60
Chanson
Vain Regret, op. 112
Andante Caprice, op. 65
Varsovie Mazurka, op. 204
Andante religioso, op. 87
Phyllis-Gavotte, op. 200
Songes d'été, op. 95
Marche funèbre, op. 89
Scène de ballet, op. 72
Calme du soir et berceuse, op. 58
Auf Wiedersehen, op. 117
Morceau lyrique n° 1, op. 97
Morceau lyrique n° 2, op. 104
Morceau lyrique n° 3, op. 111
Danse hongroise, op. 96
Au coin du feu, op. 202
Fantaisie irlandaise, op. 59
Marche des lutins, op. 16
Trois pièces faciles, op. 56
An Evening Reverie, op. 54
Study for the R.H., op. 41
Etude, op. 2
Etude, op. 19
Etude sur des notes répétées, op. 43
Mélodie-Nocturne, op. 51
Danse Antique, op. 88
A Nymph's Dance, op. 70
Petit Morceau, op. 205
Farewell, op. 10
Impromptu, op. 108
A Forgotten Strain, op. 116
A Fragment (Prelude, op. 100)
Introduction et chanson, op. 220
Mazurka Russe, op. 21
Cradle Song, op. 99
Valse legère
Souvenir, op. 53
Gavotte et Méditation, op. 69
Marche, op. 91
Divertimento, op. 6
Mazurka, op. 36
Autumn Leaves, op. 129
Dance Capriccio, op. 28
Andante, op. 86
Marche triomphale, op. 109
Chant du soir
Morceau de salon "Graceful Dance", op. 29 n° 2
Forever

Alberto La Rocca, guitare à 10 cordes

C'est en écoutant la délicieuse Alexandra Whittingham jouer la Légende opus 121 sur YT que j’ai découvert le compositeur Ernest Shand (1868-1924) qui fut la grande figure britannique de la guitare avant Julian Bream. Le label Brillant lui rend un hommage mérité en publiant ces trois CD de sa production pour guitare seule (il composa aussi un concerto et quelques mélodies accompagnées d'un piano ou d'une mandoline ou d'un banjo). S'il débute enfant l'apprentissage du violon, Shand découvre assez vite la guitare avec une partition du maître espagnol Dionisio Aguado. Il compose alors de façon frénétique (plus d'une centaine de pièces avant ses trente ans) puis poursuit une carrière fluctuante d'acteur et de chanteur de music-hall, la guitare ne nourrissant pas son homme, ce, malgré son succès de compositeur interprète. Cet aspect de divertissement dépourvu de virtuosité et d'une harmonie élémentaire se reflète fortement dans ses pages de tonalités diverses mais d'un intérêt limité. Le guitariste italien Alberto La Rocca fait montre d’une grande élégance dans sa manière de jouer, tout à fait appropriée à cette musique flatteuse et si idiomatique. (Jérôme Angouillant)

The first ever album dedicated to the music of Ernest Shand, including several first recordings. According to the guitarist Alberto La Rocca, Ernest Shand can be considered ‘one of the greatest composers for the guitar of all time’. Born into a musical family in Hull in 1868, Shand firstly learnt the rudiments of the instrument from his father before coming under the instruction of Catharina Pratten, a German guitarist who had performed as a child with Regondi and later with Gounod and Tárrega. She later married the English flautist Robert Sidney Pratten, settled in the UK and became known as ‘Madame Sidney Pratten’, and as one of the most celebrated guitar virtuosos of her day. Shand quickly proved himself to be her most talented pupil, and Pratten declared that his compositions far surpassed her own. During his lifetime Shand was widely recognized as the greatest English classical guitarist andcomposer, but his music fell into obscurity soon after his death in 1924. His surviving output of 220 works reveals a guitar composer of great originality and charm who had a gift for spinning infectious melodies. Many of these pieces were originally composed for Shand to perform himself on tours which took him afar as Australia. He retired from performance in 1897, however, after being assualted at a concert in Nottingham by a Russian audience-member who had taken exception to a patriotic song. Thereafter he concentrated on composition, and his later music inflects his essentially Romantic style with bold modulations, modal writing and hints of the Impressionism that would become hallmarks of the revolution in guitar music wrought some decades later by Villa-Lobos above all. The sentimental melodies and colourful harmonies of Shand's music impart a unique Victorian flavour which often seems to echo the sing-along anthems and nostalgia of English music halls. There is an instant, repeatable charm to the gently swaying rhythm of the Prélude et Impromptu; a teasing and memorable melancholy to the melody of the Morceau lyrique No 2; and a no less catchy wistfulness to the Légende which has survived on the fringes of the repertoire as probably his best known work.