Concerto for Guitar and Small Orchestra

Composer: VILLA-LOBOS, Heitor
  • Villa-Lobos composed this guitar concerto in 1951 in Rio de Janiero.1
  • Andrès Segovia commissioned the work. Segovia had met Villa-Lobos in Paris in the 1920s. He commissioned Villa-Lobos many times, starting with a request for an etude for guitar. Villa-Lobos was so happy to comply that he wrote twelve etudes in 1929, and dedicated all of them to Segovia.2
  • Villa-Lobos originally entitled the work Fantasia concertante. Segovia was displeased with the original version because it did not include a cadenza: there had been a great cadenza in Villa-Lobos’s Harp Concerto composed for Nicanor Zabaleta, and Segovia wanted one too!3
  • The concerto premiered in Houston, Texas in 1956 (after Villa-Lobos added a cadenza). Segovia appeared as guitar soloist, and Villa-Lobos as conductor.4

Sources

  1. Gerard Béhague, “Villa-Lobos, Heitor,” Grove Music Online (2001), accessed July 2, 2021,  https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000029373.
  2. John Patykula, “A Look at the 1956 Premiere of Villa-Lobos’ Immortal ‘Concerto for Guitar,’ Performed by Andrés Segovia,” Classical Guitar  (Summer 2017), accessed July 2, 2021, https://classicalguitarmagazine.com/a-look-at-the-1956-premiere-of-villa-lobos-immortal-concerto-for-guitar-performed-by-andres-segovia/.
  3. Ibid.
  4. Ibid.

Cut IDs

16919 20358 22253 23725