The venerable Canadian music website James Wegg Review (JWR) wrote a few words about Spanish Gems.
READ: https://www.jamesweggreview.org//Articles.aspx?ID=2584
Guitarist Aaron Larget-Caplan is back with his 11th solo album, and second celebrating Spanish musical heritage with Spanish Gems, a collection of works from the classical and flamenco repertoire (Tiger Turn 888-11 ALCguitar.com).
Included are Tárrega’s Capricho Arabe and Adelita, Esteban de Sanlúcar’s Panaderos, Albeniz’ Asturias, Gaspar Sanz’ Canarios from Suite Española, Emilio Pujol’s El Abejorro and – perhaps somewhat surprisingly – the ubiquitous Spanish Romance.”
Torroba’s three-movement Sonatina closes a thoroughly enjoyable – albeit brief at 35 minutes – CD full of Larget-Caplan’s customary clean and sensitive playing. O
June, July, August 2024
page 61
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TÁRREGA Capricho Árabe (Serenata). Adelita (Mazurka). SANLÚCAR Panaderos. ALBÉNIZ Asturias (Leyenda) (arr. Larget-Caplan). SANZ Suite Española: Canarios. ANONYMOUS Spanish Romance. PUJOL El Abejorro. TORROBA Sonatina
Spanish Gems is another outstanding recital by Aaron Larget-Caplan. On three previous occasions, I’ve reviewed for Fanfare recitals by the Boston-based guitarist. God’s Time—Music of J. S. Bach on Guitar (Tiger Turn 888-09) (Fanfare 46:3, Jan/Feb 2023) features Larget-Caplan’s transcriptions. Nights Transfigured (Stone 888-02) and Drifting (Stone 888-03) (both reviewed in Fanfare, 45:2, Nov/Dec 2021) are Volumes 2 and 3 of Larget-Caplan’s New Lullaby Project, featuring works the guitarist has commissioned, premiered, and recorded. In all cases, I was impressed by Larget-Caplan’s lovely, singing tone, aligned with mastery of both the technical demands and idioms of the works involved. That same level of artistry may be found in Spanish Gems, a collection of favorites teeming with seductive melody, rhythm, and color (strumming effects abound). Larget-Caplan plays all the Spanish works with a compelling balance of fire and elegance, magnified by the closely miked recording. This is a most enjoyable recital. Ken Meltzer
Four stars: Aaron Larget-Caplan’s beguiling recital of Spanish guitar favorites
– Fanfare, September/October, 2024
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Aaron’s 4th Publication with Edition Peters
A sweet miniature and wonderful encore, Mystic Flute was composed for solo piano in 1937. It consists of two voices: a simple melody in the harmonic minor scale balanced by an ostinato accompaniment in 7/8 meter that gives the work a hypnotic and ceremonial spirit.
The melodic line begins in the top voice, before moving to the bass voice, and returning to the top voice with small ornamentation.
*Some offer physical scores and PDFs
As I tend to do, no notes were removed from the piano score, and all dynamic and phrase markings follow the original score as well. There are probably a couple of places where a player could adjust it more, but that is up to each of us as individuals.
This arrangement was premiered on July 29, 2018 at the Coaster Theater in Cannon Beach, Oregon.
This is my fourth publication with Edition Peters and first that is not John Cage.
Special thanks to Gene Caprioglio, Owen Summers, and everyone at Edition Peters.
“GREAT ARRANGEMENT”
~This is Classical Guitar (click to read)
By Aaron Keebaugh
Guitarist Aaron Larget-Caplan managed to keep the micro-opera’s crazed figure sympathetic as he blurred the lines between reality and delusion.
Guitarist Aaron Larget-Caplan performing Richard Cameron-Wolfe’s micro-opera Heretic. Photo: Catherine Larget-Caplan
“The secret of life is learning to live with interesting questions,” Richard Cameron-Wolfe said during the post-performance talkback following the American premiere of his micro-opera Heretic at Salem State’s Callan Studio Theater last Friday. The performer and composer had made good on that claim in the compelling resonance of his composition.
In this one-person drama, the protagonist, accompanying himself on guitar, wrestles with bewildering, irresolvable issues that lead to disillusion and eventual madness. Guitarist Aaron Larget-Caplan managed to keep the crazed figure sympathetic as he blurred the lines between reality and delusion.
Given its challenging psychological extremes, the opera cruises through a wide range of emotions in its taut 15 minutes. Drawing on jagged musical textures as well as a disjointed monologue, the score is a journey toward a sharp and shattering gaze into the abyss. The guitarist is both hero and antihero — steeped in the craziness he is gallantly struggling to overcome, this is a journey into coming to terms with insanity.
Inspired by British writer Arthur Machen’s semi-autobiographical 1907 novel The Hill of Dreams, Heretic starts off by placing its central figure in an almost nonsensical predicament. Larget-Caplan plays a character lost in a mental fog. He ambled onto the stage, shifting his gaze about nervously. He then sat down and tore through a jarring phrase that fell somewhere between the soundscapes of Iannis Xenakis and Steve Reich. Vocal utterances entered the fray, and words were slowly formed — language which was interrupted by more waves of violent dissonance. Though it was composed with Cameron-Wolfe’s usual mathematical precision, the music in Heretic can sound personal and harrowing. The piece places listeners into Machen’s dark, dreamy world, where the overwrought senses are finding it harder and hard to discern what is true.
But, while this was an unapologetic descent into mental oblivion, Larget-Caplan’s character is no Parsifalian fool. The man has his semi-lucid moments, articulating a cultural critique in which he blamed himself and others for creating a civilization that has no love for beauty and purity. Our ideals of art, he reasoned, were no longer goals for the imagination to reach — they were artifacts of what we have lost. As he made these scathing observations, the guitarist unleashed another barrage of sound — like an atonal heavy metal riff — that framed his points with an ironic levity.
Here was a man who was driving himself to the end of his tether. Larget-Caplan’s nervous and angular movements suggested the angst of a mind that couldn’t stop churning, couldn’t stop torturing itself. At one point, the guitarist angrily bolted to the rear curtain as if to abandon his mission to think, only to be sucked back in. Heretic ends in a spirit of disquiet — with mumbled words accompanied by the sound of a guitar purposely falling out of tune. The man’s dilemma is inescapable. Caught up in a vicious cycle of grand accusations and self-absorption, he boldly embraces his disheveled mental state, all pain and no illumination.
These manic swings were well-served by Friday’s minimalist staging. Chairs were arranged in cross patterns — as much a symbol of confusion as a pragmatic choice for Larget-Caplan’s performance. Michael Harvey’s lighting and video projections conveyed an eerie aura; Jerry L. Johnson’s swift and economical stage directions never let the solipsistic action lag. The wild thorns of Cameron-Wolf’s score were well served by Larget-Caplan, whose bold and energetic presence underscored his talents as a musician and actor.
The other pieces on his hour-long program were also dedicated to introspection. Keigo Fujii’s The Legend of Hagoromo relayed a Japanese legend with cinematic flair. It is a narrative of a woman who is whisked away to heaven, where she mourns the absence of her husband and son. Her tears water a flower on earth that grows toward paradise. Father and son climb up it to visit her. Fujii’s music colorfully conveys the sadness and joys of this metaphoric meditation on death, loss, and hoped-for reunion. Larget-Caplan played the piece like the fanciful love letter it is: warm and reflective, yet coursing with frequent flamenco-like verve.
John Cage’s In a Landscape embraces greater ambiance. Larget-Caplan’s arrangement of the piano original — inspired by Erik Satie — makes use of Campanella-style playing. Harmonics are meant to ring over the regularly fingered melodic line. The difficulty in executing such complicated effects are considerable, and the guitarist’s arrangement didn’t fit snugly under the fingers. The upshot is that at times Larget-Caplan’s performance felt labored and mechanical, lacking the resonance, the distant glow, that marks the original conception.
Larget-Caplan’s arrangement of Bach’s Prelude in C Major and Vineet Shende’s Carnatic Prelude No. 1 proved more successful. His generous rubato in the Bach allowed him to revel in every shift in harmony. In the Shende — a view of Bach by way of Indian classical music — he unspooled melodies and rhythmic flourishes over drone-like resonances. It was a splendid exercise in singing tone and alert sensitivity.
When taking his bows, Larget-Caplan gestured to his guitar, happy to share the limelight with an instrument that had done its job well. Still, modesty aside, the strengths of these performances came down to Larget-Caplan, a musician of fluent technique and dramatic verve.
Aaron Keebaugh has been a classical music critic in Boston since 2012. His work has been featured in the Musical Times, Corymbus, Boston Classical Review, Early Music America, and BBC Radio 3. A musicologist, he teaches at North Shore Community College in both Danvers and Lynn.
Honored to have ‘God’s Time: Music of J.S. Bach on Guitar’ chosen as one of the Best Albums of 2023 by The Arts Fuse!
Read the whole article by clicking above!
This 10th solo album from the esteemed guitarist and composer Aaron Larget-Caplan offers us Spanish and flamenco selections where he showcases his inimitable spin via the rich and mesmerizing playing.
The warm and cultured “Two Pieces”, by Isaac Albéniz, opens the listen with much charm and grace, and Esteban de Sanlúcar’s “Mantilla de Feria” follows with a more firm approach of meticulous and agile finger acrobatics.
The middle tracks belong to the swift and melodic gestures of Francisco Tárrega’s “Five Pieces”, while Albéniz’’s “Granada” finds a more intimate place to reside with its soothing and harmonic patterns.
The final track, “Espana Cani”, by Pascual Marquina” is just as intricate, where Larget-Caplan’s playful techniques touche on Spanish ideas with profound skill.
This is Larget-Caplan’s 4th time working with the multi-Grammy winner Kabir Sehgal, who helps illuminate these time honored Spanish pieces that again solidify Larget-Caplan as one of today’s most luminous guitarists.
Travels well with: Aaron Larget-Caplan– Honey Cadence; Reza Khan– Imaginary Road
Spanish Candy • Tiger Turn, 2023
8/10
Visit Take Effect by clicking on the image.
I am grateful for the many people who have made this year so special. At times I felt like 2023 was a normal year of music making and collaboration, and then I would be reminded that our recent past is very much with us and that the world is very fragile.
I consider 2023 to be Adventure in Music year, and I think we have earned a bit of rest and a special cappuccino or affogato (see below) to commemorate the beauty that can exist in the world, if we so desire it.
Onward for a wonderful, safe, and healthy 2024, and thanks to all who have listened, enjoyed, and explored music with me in 2023!
Aaron
Honored to have the score collection of ‘honey cadence’ featured on the awesome classical guitar resource This Is Classical Guitar!
–> https://www.thisisclassicalguitar.com/honey-cadence-aaron-larget-caplan/
There is a very nice write up and a lovely video of the title track by Bradford Werner too!
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TY American Composers Alliance for a beautiful publication!
Click here or the link above to read the complete review