Raphaël Feuillâtre & Eduardo Eguëz

Raphaël Feuillâtre, guitar; Eduardo Eguëz, vihuela, lute & guitar

MILÁN, ORTIZ, SANZ, ALBÉNIZ, TARREGA, PIAZZOLLA...

Pavanas, Jácaras, Canarios, Fandango, Folias, Tarantelas, Milongas and Tangos...

The guitar has crossed the centuries, reinventing itself constantly. By turns intimate and contemplative, then virtuosic and festive, it moves freely between aristocratic drawing rooms and popular circles. Historically, it continues the tradition of older instruments such as the vihuela, which emerged in the Iberian Peninsula in the 16th century. A close relative of the lute, which was triumphing everywhere else in Europe, the vihuela inspired a refined repertoire in composers such as Alonso Mudarra and Luis de Milán. When the baroque guitar gradually established itself at the end of the century, it opened up to popular practices. The work of Gaspar Sanz offers a broad panorama of the styles of the period and reveals a profound cultural mestizaje, fed in particular by influences from the New World (also attested by the Codex Saldivar, a manuscript discovered in Mexico). It was, however, in the 19th and 20th centuries that the guitar reached one of its most accomplished expressions, notably in Spain, where Albéniz, Falla, Rodrigo and Granados gave it a voice both nostalgic and sunlit. Two virtuosos and poets of plucked strings come together here to celebrate the star instrument of the Iberian world.