ARANJUEZ CONCERT

ARANJUEZ CONCERT – UC3M Orchestra

Date: November 20, 2026
Location: Daoíz y Velarde Cultural Center (Madrid)
Director: Jerónimo Marín

Program

∴ Overture to *La figlia dell’aria* by Manuel García (1775–1832) *

∴ Concierto de Aranjuez – J. Rodrigo (1901–1999)
Sohta Nakabayashi, guitar

1. Allegro con spirito
2. Adagio
3. Allegro gentile

∴ Spanish Caprice , Op. 34 – N. Rimsky-Korsakov (1844–1908)
Alberto Juárez, violin

*Premiere in modern times

Program Notes

We are dedicating this program to music written by Spanish composers or, even when composed by foreign composers, music that has strong ties to Spain.

While we await the compilation of a catalog of his works, it is estimated that Manuel García, a native of Seville, composed more than 40 works, including both zarzuelas and operas in Spanish, Italian, and French. A personal friend of Rossini—whose *The Barber of Seville* he premiered as a tenor—and the father of the famous María Malibrán and Pauline Viardot, he is a fascinating figure to whom we are indebted for his significance in his time and the scarcity of his scores today. His music serves as the perfect bridge between Mozartian classicism and Italian bel canto. “La figlia dell’aria,” with a libretto written by Gaetano Rossi based on Calderón’s play of the same name, which premiered in 1653 and features Semíramis as the protagonist, premiered at the Park Theatre in New York in 1826 and has not been heard since. Today we present his Overture for the first time in modern times, with the hope that in the not-too-distant future we will be able to hear the entire opera.

The Concierto de Aranjuez is the most iconic work by Joaquín Rodrigo, a native of Sagunt, to the point that it has overshadowed the rest of his body of work. Composed in Paris in 1939 but premiered in Barcelona in 1940, it is the first work for guitar and orchestra written by Rodrigo, and also the first work of its kind in Spain in the 20th century. Nevertheless, it displays a delicate use of the orchestra as accompaniment, with the guitar always clearly taking center stage. The second movement, with its dialogue between the English horn and the guitar, is a marvel of melancholy and beauty. With this work, we wish to pay tribute to Joaquín Rodrigo on the 125th anniversary of his birth.

“Capricho Español,” Op. 34, is a symphonic poem by the Russian composer Rimsky-Korsakov that premiered in 1887. Between 1862 and 1865, Rimsky-Korsakov traveled extensively as an officer in the Russian Navy, and he spent a few days in Cádiz. The work, structured in five movements performed without pause, draws on Spanish folk material such as the Asturian Alborada and Fandango, which open and close the composition. It is one of his most acclaimed works for its brilliant orchestration—note the extensive use of percussion!—in which the violin plays such a prominent role that one might even call it a Fantasy for Violin and Orchestra.

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