We recently ran across this dynamic performance of Joaquín Rodrigo’s En los trigales played by another of our favorite young guitarists, Serbia-born Sabrina Vlaskalic, who was featured in a fascinating article in the summer 2017 issue of CG. Her lone album, Debut, came out at the beginning of 2017.
As I noted previously, when we posted another guitarist’s version of this piece over a year ago, Rodrigo composed En los trigales in the summer of 1938. The title means “In the wheatfields,” and according to Rodrigo biographer (and longtime Classical Guitar magazine writer) Graham Wade, writing in Joaquín Rodrigo: A Life in Music (GRM Publications, 2006): “This work could be interpreted not only as a vivid evocation of summer landscape, but also as a song of homecoming in which the Spanish national instrument became, quite suddenly, one of Rodrigo’s most intimately expressive voices.” It was dedicated to guitarist Narciso Yepes, and premiered by Regino Saínz de la Maza, who also debuted (and is the dedicatee of) Rodrigo’s famous Concierto de Aranjuez, begun in 1938 and premiered the following year. The popular but challenging piece has been recorded numerous times and by several top names, including Julian Bream, John Williams, Ernesto Bitetti, Scott Tennant, and Christoph Denoth.
Advertisement
And you can watch Sabrina offer tips on playing the piece in this YouTube video posted by the good folks at tonebase.—Blair Jackson