What's New

Mr. Barrueco signed a long term contract with EMI classics in London this past August. Under that contract, EMI already recorded Bach's Solo Violin Sonatas and an all Rodrigo album with tenor/conductor Plácido Domingo. The Rodrigo album is scheduled to be released in June 1997 and the Bach album will follow in the autumn. The repertoire for other recordings is still to be decided.

J. S. Bach (CDC 56416)

Bach's Three Violin Sonatas arranged by Barrueco himself, came out in the summer of 1997 (August 19th in the US).

J. Rodrigo (CDC 56175)

Barrueco's much anticipated Rodrigo CD with Plácido Domingo and the Philharmonia Orchestra, will be released around the world in October or November (November 11th in the US).

The repertoire chosen for the Rodrigo CD is the "Concierto de Aranjuez" and "Fantasía para un Gentilhombre" with Plácido Domingo conducting; two solo pieces, "Zarabanda Lejana" and "Un Tiempo fue Itálica Famosa"; and four songs: "Pastorcito Santo", "Adela", "Coplas del Pastor Enamorado" and "Copillas de Belén", in which Domingo sings to Barrueco's guitar accompaniment.

Latin-American Album

In the spring of 1998, EMI will release a Latin-American album with mostly solo music, but two artist contribute to the recording. Soprano Barbara Hendricks in the "Bachiana Brasilera #5" by Villa-Lobos, and Emmanuel Pahud, the principal flutist for the Berlin Philharmonic, in Pazzolla's "Histoire du Tango".

Re-Releases

This summer/fall (Nov. 11 in the US) EMI will re-release five of Barrueco's older CDs.

• Albéniz & Turina
• Bach & de Visée
• Villa-Lobos, Brouwer & Orbón
• de Falla, Ponce & Rodrigo
• Mozart & Sor

In August 1996, Angel/EMI USA released an album with a collection of cuts from Mr. Barrueco's other EMI recordings. The CD was released in Europe under the name "Portrait," but in the US it was released under the name "Pure Barrueco."

This past May, Mr. Barrueco recorded a Christmas song with guitarist Steve Morse (Deep Purple) with whom he toured with the Guitar Summit in the fall of 1995. They recorded "Carol of the Bells" for the Windham Hill label has been released and is called "The Carols of Christmas, A Windham Hill Collection Selected Artists". The catalogue number is 01934 11193-2 the song is track 9.

Next February, Mr. Barrueco will be premiering a new concerto for guitar and orchestra by the Puerto Rican composer Roberto Sierra. The new concerto is called Concierto Barroco and is based on a book wiht the same name by the Cuban writer Alejo Carpintier. The composer said about his new work:

"As point of departure for Concierto Barroco I took the cuban writer Alejo Carpintier's work with the same name. Corelli's Concerti Grosso are transformed in a contemporary language that also includes Caribbean rhythms."

(Roberto Sierra)

During Mr. Barrueco's Japan tour in June 1997, he will do the Japan premiere of Takemistu's double concerto for violin, guitar and orchestra, Spectral Canticle, with the NHK Symphony Orchestra and Frank Peter Zimmermann, violin. The concerto, which turned out to be Mr. Takemitsu's last orchestral piece, was commissioned by Mr. Barrueco himself; Frank Peter Zimmermann and the Schlesvig-Holstein Musik Festival in Germany. The world premiere was at the Schlesvig-Holstein Musik Festival in Kiel, Germany with Mr. Barrueco and Mr. Zimmermann, and Franz Welser-Möst conducting the Ensemble Aktuell.