Albums

For a brief period in the early 19th century, the guitar enjoyed a veritable hype. Salons in Paris and Vienna hosted musical soirees where the latest compositions were performed for an intimate audience. And when a true virtuoso guitarist came to play, like the Italians Carulli, Molino or Gragnani and the Bohemian Matiegka, the enthusiasm…

Ensemble Cordevento:Erik Bosgraaf – recorderIzhar Elias – baroque guitarAlessandro Pianu – harpsichordRobert Smith – viola da gambaIsrael Golani – theorbo The French grand siècle is most often viewed through the gilt-framed mirrors of Versailles, showing the pomp and splendour, the feasts and formality of Louis XIV’s reign. However, the composers of his court took special…

Played on two original Enzensperger guitars The Guitar Through the Eyes of the Master The two sonatas on this album were composed in two periods during which life looked very different for the composer Franz Schubert (1797-1828). The first, the Piano Sonata in A major, D 664 was written while on a long trip during…

This album is an anthology of popular Sephardic songs completed with excerpts from a rare song collection by Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco. The selection of Sephardic songs they have made ranges between subjects of love, war, birth and death: epic tales sung by medieval Spanish bards, Jewish liturgical melodies and texts, and Arabic styles of melodic ornamentation.…

La Guitarre RoyalleWorks by Francesco Corbetta (c.1615-1681)Izhar Elias – solo baroque guitarPhotography – Paul and Menno de Nooijer Francesco Corbetta: the JS Bach of the guitar? A bold claim, but one made with passion by the guitarist Izhar Elias in his own booklet essay for this ground-breaking new album. On this album Elias has made…

For this exciting new recording Dutch guitarist Izhar Elias selected 4 works for guitar and strings to show the versatility of his instrument. In these works by Brouwer, Pujol , Sierra and Maier influences can be traced from classical music, Avant-Garde, Caribbean music, Spanish folklore, Flamenco, Arabic music, tango, blues and even trip-hop and heavy…

Reviews “Izhar Elias’s playing is sensitive and imaginative, from his evocative, magical playing of the intimate Preludio, to the disquieting, somewhat Spanish-flavoured Toccata temporarily relieved by cascades of chords. ”“Braun’s Partita constitutes a rich item of 20th century guitar repertoire.”Pamela Hickman’s blog, May 2017 Review in Music Voice, Italy, December 2016

Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up. Pablo Picasso A clarinet and guitar duo is an instrumental combination one seldom hears. This is remarkable considering that the clarinet’s timbre can be light and intimate, therefore very well-suited to the sound of the guitar. In Carrousel…

This original concept CD presents one of the most popular opera arias in early 19th century Vienna, “Nel cor più non mi sento”, from Paisiello’s opera L’amor contrastato, as the basis of variation works by a variety of composers: Bortolazzi, Hummel, Giuliani, Wanhal and Beethoven. The aria, in its powerful simplicity, lends itself very well…

The guitar is not the first instrument one associates with the towering figure of Beethoven. This original and appealing programme presents works of Beethoven in chamber music arrangements with guitar, written by contemporaries, a practice that was quite common in the period, playing its role in the popularisation of the music.Izhar Elias plays on several…

17th-century music from the Spanish territories, with music of Falconieri, Selma, Sweelinck, Van Eyck and many others. Reviews 4 stars in a.o. Fono Forum, Dutch newspaper Telegraaf and Luister Magazine.

It’s a mixture of French impressionistic sounds and Spanish rhythms. Spanish composers like De Falla, Rodrigo and Turina, who became friends during their student years in Paris, attempted to combine Ravel’s and Debussy’s impressionistic sounds with their own Spanish roots and encouraged one another to rediscover Spanish folk music idioms.

Reviews ‘intelligent and multi-layered’ Frederike Berntsen/ De Telegraaf- July 18th 2009 This arrangement is one of the longest series of pieces in the solo guitar repertoire (116 minutes in this performance). Performed on an 1812 Guadagnini guitar with the notes providing a synopsis of each operatic scene in the transcription.This recording is likely the first…

Big eye presents the fruits of a collaboration between the duo and several vibrant film makers and composers of today. This is placed alongside pieces by prominent twentieth-century classical composers including Toru Takemitsu and Giacinto Scelsi.

On this album Izhar Elias pays tribute to Guadagnini: almost all the works were performed on a historical instrument, an original guitar from 1812 made by Carlo Guadagnini (1768-1816). This unusual guitar has a very singing timbre. The difference from a modern classical guitar can be clearly heard in the Capriccio Diabolico by Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco.…