Composed: 1939
Premiered: 1940, Barcelona
Duration: 21 minutes

Joaquin Rodrigo was one of the most important Spanish composers of the 20th century. Although he was blind from childhood, he established a successful career as a pianist. Like several other Spanish composers, he studied in Paris, following in the footsteps of Manuel de Falla, Albéniz, and Turina. After he returned to Spain, he gave up his performing career to devote himself entirely to composition. 

Although he was not a guitarist himself, he understood the idiom of the Spanish guitar. Concierto de Aranjuez for guitar and orchestra is by far his best-known work. Aranjuez, near Madrid, was the spring-time residence of the Spanish royal family. The composer described the concerto as capturing “the fragrance of magnolias, singing of birds, and gushing of fountains.” 

As the Spanish civil war was beginning, Rodrigo was a refugee in Germany. The concerto was composed in Paris in 1939, as the war was ending. The Franco dictatorship considered it an acceptable expression of the political situation and regime. Many years later, King Joan Carlos raised Rodrigo to the Spanish nobility, with the title of Marquess of the Gardens of Aranjuez.

Program note by the late Dr. C.W. Helleiner.