Laura Lootens - Albeniz

This is the debut CD of the 24 year old German guitar player LAURA LOOTENS from Munich. The disc presents arrangements for solo guitar by the artist.

Spanish composer Isaac Albeniz was mainly a pianist and wrote primarily for the piano. More than any other musician, he succeeded in incorporating the Spanish guitar idiom and folklore into his style. Thus, for instance, his works contain allusions to rasgueado, a guitar technique that strums all six strings percussively in rapid succession, as we often hear in flamenco.

Thus it is no wonder that many of Albeniz's piano works have also been performed on the guitar: particularly Asturias (from the Suite Espanola), a piece that has become a staple in practically every guitarist's repertoire. But things are different when we come to Albeniz's Iberia, a suite of piano pieces so complex that few solo guitarists have ever attempted to transcribe and perform them (although a few guitar ensembles have managed to accomplish the feat).

Once I fell in love with guitar playing, I could not avoid becoming familiar with the music of Spain, which drew me immediately under its spell, thanks to its fiery character, grace, and astoundingly gorgeous melodies coupled with vibrant rhythms.

I was particularly fascinated by Isaac Albeniz's music, which is why I desired to devote my first CD to him, with my own arrangements of his music. In these transcriptions, I have endeavored to stay as close to the original as possible in order to retain the original pieces' complexity.

My selection stems from Albeniz's most well-known cycles: Iberia (El Albaicin, Evocation), Suite Espanola (Aragon, Asturias, Cadiz, Castilla, Cataluna, Cuba, Granada, Sevilla), and Espana (Capricho Catalan, Malaguena).