Bedford: Rodrigo’s Guitar Concerto with Sean Shibe

The evening

Described as “the most interesting voice on the guitar for a generation” (Gramophone), Sean Shibe might just be the most in-demand guitarist on the current classical music scene. Tonight, he joins the Philharmonia for Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez. This treasure of the classical guitar repertoire evokes the gardens of a Spanish royal palace. The composer himself described it as “full of melancholic emotion… In its melody the perfume of magnolias lingers, the singing of birds and the gushing of fountains.”

After the interval we travel from Rodrigo’s Spanish gardens to the sunny sights of Italy with Mendelssohn’s Fourth Symphony, once described by the composer as “the jolliest piece I have ever done”. And jolly it very much is – from the energising melody of the opening movement to the fiery folk dance in the finale, Mendelssohn paints a vivid musical postcard of a country he deeply loved.