GUITAR QUARTET

FERNANDO LIMA / JOÃO LUIZ

FABIO RAMAZZINA / SIDNEY MOLINA

PART I

Heitor Villa-Lobos (Brazil, 1887-1959)

Bachianas Brasileiras n. 1 (1930) transcription by Sergio Abreu

Embolada

Modinha (Preludio)

Conversa (Fuga)

Paulo Bellinati (Brazil, 1950)

Baião de Gude (1997)*

Sérgio Molina (Brazil, 1967)

Sonata Cravo e Canela (1998)*

PART II

Alberto Ginastera (Argentina, 1916-1983)

Danzas Argentinas op. 2 (1937) arrangement by João Luiz

Danza del viejo boyero (Dance of the Old Cowherd)

Danza de la moza donosa (Dance of the Delightful Young Girl)

Danza del gaucho matrero (Dance of the Artful Herdsman)

Leo Brouwer (Cuba, 1939)

Tres Danzas Concertantes (1958) arrangement by Fabio Ramazzina

Allegro

Andantino

Toccata

Sérgio Assad (Brazil, 1952)

Uarekena (1994)

· pieces dedicated to Quaternaglia Guitar Quartet

About

GUITAR QUARTET

Formed by Fernando Lima, João Luiz, Fabio Ramazzina and Sidney Molina, Quaternaglia Guitar Quartet has been a strong international reference of artistic excellency and magnificence of repertoire written for four guitars. During the last ten years, the group has established a real canon of inedited original pieces, almost all of them written by Brazilian composers. The group performance started to call the attention of the international critics in 1998 after receiving the "Ensemble Prize” at the International Guitar Contest of Havana (Cuba) and also after its participation in several important guitar and chamber music series in the United States, like Guitarists of the World, the American Guitar Society Concert Series (Los Angeles), Fort Worth Classical Guitar Society (Dallas/ Fort Worth), Friends of Music (Stamford) and Round Top Festival Hill.

The launching of the album Forrobodó in Europe by Carmo/ECM label (2000), produced by Egberto Gismonti, was the first register of an original repertoire of great virtuosity - almost integrally dedicated to the quartet – which has been an example to the most important guitar ensembles of the present time. Among the pieces of the album it is important to detach “Baião de Gude” and “A Furiosa” written by Paulo Bellinati and “Forrobodó” written by Egberto Gismonti. The album Antique, launched in 1996 by COMEP label has transcriptions of renascence, baroque and classic pieces. The album was one of the finalists of the Sharp Prize in the category “Classical Music” and helped the group to receive the Carlos Gomes Prize as the best chamber ensemble of the year (1997) from the Culture Secretary of São Paulo.

According to Los Angeles Times’ critics, "Quaternaglia Guitar quartet was attracted by opportunity to add experience and spice to a young genre, creating a canon of fire" and "an aura of purity pervaded the concert of the Brazilian guitar quartet, that met all the requirements with equanimity and intelligence in its California debut". The critics of Fort Worth Star Telegram wrote "the four Brazilians performed the entire concert from memory and with a precise interaction" and "not a note was out of place, and every nuance of interpretation was in harmony at this concert that thrilled the crowd”.

The first Quaternaglia’s concert occurred in São Paulo in 1992 and since then the group has participated of the main chamber and guitar events in Brazil, like the SESC International Guitar Festival of São Paulo, Latin American Seminary of Guitar, Villa-Lobos Festival, Guitars: Tendencies and Traditions in Sao Paulo, International Music Festival of Pará, Winter Festival of Campos do Jordão and Chamber Music Festival of Curitiba. Among the concert halls where the quartet has been performing we can detach the Saint Peter Theater, Municipal Theater, Latin America Memorial Theater and Artistic Culture Theater, in Sao Paulo, Municipal Theater, Cecília Meireles Hall and Municipal Theater of Niterói, in Rio de Janeiro, Theater of Peace, in Belém, and diverse theaters of capitals as Goiânia, Cuiabá, Curitiba, Belo Horizonte, Brasilia and country cities of São Paulo state. Before the entrance of Fernando Lima and João Luiz (2002) other famous Brazilian guitarists performed with Sidney Molina and Fabio Ramazzina in Quaternaglia, such as Breno Chaves, Eduardo Fleury and Paulo Porto Alegre. The debut album of the group, launched by JHO label in 1995 including the first recording of the transcription written by Sergio Abreu of “Bachianas Brasileiras n. 1” by Villa-Lobos and with the integral recording of the pieces for four guitars written by Leo Brouwer – composer with whom the group keeps close contact – became an example of artistic production and technique to the most important recording works of Brazilian classical guitar during the second half of the nineties. The attempted and mature proposal of the chamber guitar work of Quaternaglia was immediately recognized by specialized publications like the magazines Classical Guitar and Les Cahiers de la Guitare.

Since its première abroad in the International Guitar Festival of Montevideo (1996), the group has being performing in cities like Buenos Aires, Caracas, Havana, New York, Atlanta, Miami, Los Angeles, Washington, Dallas, Houston, Princeton, Phoenix and Tucson, among others. It is also important to detach the performance of the Quaternaglia as soloist invited by many Brazilian orchestras, such as the Brazilian Symphonic Orchestra, Symphonic Orchestra of Santos, Symphonic Orchestra of Santo Andre, Villa-Lobos Chamber Orchestra and Culture Symphonic Orchestra. Among the main pieces of its concert repertoire we can detach the “Andaluz Concert” by Joaquín Rodrigo, presented as part of the celebrations of the centenary birthday of the composer, the “Concert for Four Guitars and Orchestra”, written especially for the group by the Brazilian composer Estércio Marquez Cunha, and a successful adaptation of the “Concert for Four Harpsichords and Orchestra” by J. S. Bach. The didactic activity of the quartet must be also detached, with special prominence to its lectures and master classes in diverse Brazilian capitals, and institutions as Texas Christian University, Brookhaven College and California State University, beyond of the organization of National Guitar Festivals at Mozart Musical Conservatory, in São Paulo, since 1995.

Quaternaglia launched in 2004 the album Presença (Paulus Music), with pieces written by the Brazilian composers Radamés Gnattali, Sergio Molina, Paulo Tiné, Rodrigo Vitta, Tom Jobim and Douglas Lora, and performed the world première of the guitar quartet and string orchestra pieces composed by Egberto Gismonti and Sérgio Molina specially for the 1st International Guitar Festival at Round Top (USA). During the 2005-2006 season the quartet launched its first DVD, Quaternaglia (Eldorado),

Discography

Quaternaglia – Villa-Lobos, Brouwer,

Stravinsky and Márquez Cunha JHO 1995

Antique – Praetorius, Hume,

Telemann, Boccherini and Carulli COMEP 1996

Forrobodó – Bellinati, Gismonti,

Assad and Nazareth CARMO/ ECM 2000

Presença – Molina, Gnattali, Vitta, Tiné,

Lora and Jobim PAULUS MUSIC, 2004

Quaternaglia DVD – live recital and making of ELDORADO, 2006

Invited by:

Lina Pires de Campos

Universo Sonoro REGIA MUSICA 1998

Rumos Musicais

Live in São Paulo with Paulo Bellinati ITAÚ CULTURAL 1999

10 Anos de Violão Intercâmbio

J. S. Bach Concertato for four Harpsichords GTR 2004

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