Vicky Cristina Barcelona - Woody Allen

The film, 'Vicky Cristina Barcelona', which was written and directed by Woody Allen, won a Golden Globe Award in 2008.
Now, Penelope Cruz has been nominated for an Oscar, as best supporting actress.

The film is about two young American women, Vicky (Rebecca Hall) and Cristina (Scarlett Johansson) who spend a summer in Spain, and meet the flamboyant artist, Juan Antonio, (Javier Bardem).
Penelope Cruz plays the beautiful, yet insane, ex-wife of Javier Bardem.

But the reason I am discussing 'Vicky Cristina Barcelona' here, is the music.

The title song, 'Barcelona', which was written and recorded by 'Giulia y los Tellarini', (at the time a little known Spanish band), were shocked when approached by Woody Allen's team.
Rumour has it that the girlfriend of one of the band members sent a copy of their CD to Allen's hotel.
On hearing it, Allen realised it was just the sound he wanted, and attempted to make contact.
After initial attempts to reach the band though MySpace, (they thought it was a joke), eventually a deal was done.

But it is the soundtrack to the rest of the film which particularly interests me.
Paco de Lucia performs, 'Entre Dos Aguas', Juan Serrano plays, 'Gorrion' and 'Entre Olas'.
Those two performers alone are enough to make me want to see the film, but with interpretations of 'El Noi de la Mare' (Trad. Arr. Llobet), 'Granada' (Isaac Albeniz) and 'Asturias' (Isaac Albeniz) it seems hard to resist.

You can of course hear Robin's version of some of these tracks on 'Virtuoso'.

A film set in Spain should incorporate this fabulous music.
I know of at least one guitarist that will be watching simply to hear the guitar being played in a major film!

Review: Robin Hill & Izzy Cooper

On the 28th August Robin and the soprano Izzy Cooper performed a concert in Spain, 'Viva La Classica'.
I mentioned how it had gone at the time, rather briefly, as I was in the process of retrieving my son before he became stranded, when his Dad flew off to another concert.
You can read the post here.

So I was very pleased, when yesterday I was notified about a review, written by Jack Troughton, in 'Round Town News'.
I was even happier when I read the first line, "The golden blend of Izzy Cooper's powerful voice and the glorious guitar playing of Robin Hill made Viva La Classica an enchanting success."

The programme was a varied one:

Act 1:

Les filles de Cadix - Leo Delibes
Siete Canciones Populares Espanolas - Manuel de Falla
Bachianas Brasileiras No.5 - Heitor Villa-Lobos

Un Dia de Noviembre - Leo Brouwer (solo - Robin Hill)
Recuerdos de la Alhambra - Francisco Tarrega (solo - Robin Hill)
Malaguena - trad arr.Hill (solo - Robin Hill)

En Aranjuez, con tu amor - Joaquin Rodrigo
Granada - Agustin Lara
Tu Quieres Volver - Gypsy Kings


Act 11:

Lascia Ch'io Pianga - George Frederic Handel
Plaisir D'Amour - Jean Paul Martini
Scarborough Fair - Simon and Garfunkel
Fields of Gold - Sting
Ave Maria - Charles Gounod

Tango en Skai - Roland Dyens (solo - Robin Hill)
Cavatina - Stanley Myres (solo - Robin Hill)
Asturias - Isaac Albeniz arr.Hill (solo - Robin Hill)

My love is like a red red rose - Robbie Burns
Somewhere over the rainbow - E Y Harburg & Harold Arlen
O Mio Babbino Caro - Giacomo Puccini
Imagine - John Lennon
Por ti Sere - Brendan Graham & Rolf Lovland


Here's a photo, courtesy of Round Town News, of Robin whilst performing one of the solo pieces.
The more observant amongst you will notice the lack of footstool. He is in fact, on this occasion, using a special cushion, designed to mould to the shape of the leg.



The review itself is a great one.
Izzy is described as a, "star", and Robin, "holds an audience spellbound", and one line I particularly like, " His fingers flew along the guitar's neck like the wings of a hummingbird."
But don't take my word for it. Follow the link and read it for yourself, "One Enchanted Evening".
Both Izzy and Robin are delighted at the reception they received, and have already been taking orders for the album they will be recording together.

My job, to find a time in their busy schedules to make that possible....and soon.

Asturias - Isaac Albeniz (1860 - 1909)

'Asturias' is a very special piece of music to Robin, as it was one of the first pieces he heard played on the classical guitar, and, one of his main motivations to learn the instrument.
This occurred whilst listening to the radio, when about 14 years old, and John Peel played The Doors, 'Spanish Caravan'.
Peel then explained that the song starts with the theme from Asturias, and went on to play Segovia performing the piece, which was Robin's inspiration.

Isaac Albeniz was a Spanish pianist and composer who started as a child prodigy.
He gave his first performance at 4 and rumour has it that he was accepted into the Paris Conservatoire at the age of 7, but he broke a window with a ball he was playing with, so was denied admission.

It was Felipe Pedrell who inspired Albeniz to write Spanish music, such as, Suite Espanola, Op.47. of which Asturias (Leyenda) is the 5th movement. Despite originally being composed for piano, it is a very guitaristic piece, and was transcribed for guitar by Tarrega, along with many other pieces.
Albeniz is known to have preferred many of his pieces played on the guitar and Asturias is probably one if the most famous which now has an important position in the classical guitar repertoire.

This is one of my favourite versions of Asturias. The atmospheric build up to the triplets in the first section is incredible, and the dramatic punctuation by the powerful chords really heightens the tension before the calm of the more reflective middle section. The first section is then repeated with a beautiful coda section to complete the movement.

Happy Birthday to Isaac Albeniz

Today would have been Isaac Albeniz's birthday, he was born on the 29th May 1860.
Albeniz, the Spanish composer and pianist, is one of the most important figures in Spain's musical history.
He was a child prodigy who at the age of four, so amazed the audience with his performance, that they suspected trickery. Famously as a young child, he stowed away on a ship to South America where he entertained audiences by playing with his back to the piano and other amazing antics.
Albeniz performed for most of his life, and, continued composing until his death on the 18th May 1909.
Albeniz composed, 'Suite Espanola', of which the fifth movement is possibly one of the most famous classical guitar pieces, 'Asturias'.
Although originally composed for piano it was later transcibed for guitar by Francisco Tarrega, along with many other pieces by Albeniz.
In fact Albeniz once declared that he preferred Tarrega's transcription of Asturias to his own original piano version.
Asturias can be heard on Robin's, 'Virtuoso' album.


If you go over to Jessica Duchen's blog you will see that it is also Korngold's birthday!

Update on previous blogs:
The other day I mentioned an article by Ben Quinn on an elderly pop group called, 'The Zimmers'. Their version of 'My Generation', by The Who, has been viewed by more than two million people on YouTube. Read, 'Pensioners pop on course for number one', for the full story.
Well done to The Zimmers, and also to Tim Samuels of the BBC, for putting the group together, and highlighting the needs of the elderly - or not!
There's also a further twist to the tale about the 'code cracking' antics of Thomas and Stuart Mitchell. I first mentioned them on the 1st of May, and it appears that Stuart Mitchell has been contacted by a Mexican astronomer who claims the same hexagonal shape can be seen on Saturn.
Apparently, in musical terms, this shape represents a B natural, suggesting more code cracking is needed.
I'm not making it up, read Ausian Cramb's article, 'The Da Vinci chapel echoes to the sound of Saturn', for the full story.