20th Century Guitar – The Art of Modern Guitar
Friedemann Wuttke, guitarist
Compositions by Wedlich, Brouwer, and Domeniconi

Guitarist Friedemann Wuttke has performed compositions from all periods of music in his concerts and recordings; from the earliest guitar arrangements through Classical and modern contemporary works.  Wuttke’s newest album 20th Century Guitar, features some of the most beloved guitar composers of our time including Ulrich Wedlich, Leo Brouwer, and Carlo Domeniconi.

Stuttgart guitarist and composer Ulrich Wedlich’s Sonata für Gitarre conjures a meditative state in the listener. Its music appears to hover in the gray area between a popular and serious guitar work.  Cuban-born and self-taught composer Leo Brouwer is perhaps the most important representative of 20th Century Guitar music on the recording. His Concerto Elegiaco for Guitar and Orchestra gives the impression of a large, lush, Romantic era orchestra.  In reality, the piece is scored for strings and 2 percussionists; one playing kettle drums, the other playing a drum, tom tom, marimba, and glockenspiel.  Domeniconi’s Koyunbaba for Guitar (named for a saint-like hermit who lived in the South of Turkey) uses solely the guitar to create a magical sea adventure for the listener with sounds that fashion a world that seems to extend beyond human horizons.

Since 1992, Friedemann Wuttke has exclusively pursued his concert and recording career. He appears regularly at international music events and festivals and participates in numerous radio and television recordings. Wuttke has traveled the world as a concert guitarist and has performed with many important ensembles and orchestras.

Cello Fiesta!
Kremerata Baltica, Marie-Elisabeth Hecker, Giorgi Kharadze
Compositions by Haydn, Tchaikovsky, Vaja Azarashvili, Ginastera, and Chick Corea
“Recommended” By Gidon Kremer

Cello Fiesta! is a unique recording by the orchestra-in-residence of the Kronberg Academy, Kremerata Baltica, and two Kronberg Academy Cello Masters: Marie-Elisabeth Hecker and Giorgi Kharadze.  Hecker (Winner of the 2005 International Rostropovich Cello Competition) and Kharadze (Winner of the International Pablo Caslas Cello Competition) perform repertoire from three centuries while incorporating a range of musical colors and historical styles.  Gidon Kremer, founder of the Kremerata Baltica, has compared Hecker and Kharadze to the likes of the great cellist Pablo Casals and has also said that they are “musicians who will secure the future of the new generation of cellists”.

The recording opens with Haydn’s Concerto for Cello and Orchestra in C major, followed by the inspired Pezzo Capriccioso in B minor, which was composed by Tchaikovsky in less than one week.  These pieces pave the way for a variety of pieces from the 20th century, including the single movement Concerto for Cello and Orchestra by the revered Georgian composer Vaja Azarashvili.  Written for his good friend Pablo Casals, Argentinian Ginastera’s Glosses sobre temes de Pau Casals (Op 46) is colorful and provocative.  Chick Corea’s La Fiesta, arranged for 2 celli, strings and percussion, appropriately serves as the finale of the recording.