Classic CD: Karadaglic Aranjuez

CD cover: Aranjuez.

Karadaglic: Aranjuez
(Deutsche Grammophon)
Verdict: Glamorous guitarist investigates familiar Spanish landscapes

Joaquin Rodrigo is often written off as a one-hit wonder, the mega-popularity of his Concierto de Aranjuez pushing the rest of his music firmly into the farthest corner of the hacienda.

It is a callous dismissal of a career that spanned much of the last century (Rodrigo lived from 1901-1999).

Nevertheless, this 1939 work has become the composer's calling card and, inevitably, the concerto of choice when guitarists are invited on an orchestral date.

This piece provides the title for the first orchestral outing by Milos Karadaglic, with the London Philharmonic Orchestra under Yannick Nezet-Seguin.

The guitarist's Slavic good looks, complete with modish stubble, harmonise well with Spanish backdrops, in what must have been an extensive photo-shoot for the CD booklet.

Once past such visual enticements, there is no resisting this man's music, drawing listeners into his world with an intimacy that few other instrumentalists could rival.

Even when Rodrigo's inspiration flags, Karadaglic's cool flamenco and satiny scales are an instant revival kit.

The central Adagio is faultless in its sheen, introduced by a cor anglais solo that deserves full accreditation.

Throughout this, and Rodrigo's later Fantasia para un Gentilhombre, conductor Nezet-Seguin makes his presence very much felt, as he did in Auckland, working with our NZSO National Youth Orchestra in 2007.

The massive range of colours extracted from Rodrigo's scores reminded me of the NZSO NYO's La Mer seven years ago, in which the Canadian's baton seemed to catch every ripple and wave in Debussy's sea.

In the much weaker Fantasia para un Gentilhombre, which can come across like a succession of arrangements, Nezet-Seguin's shaping of its structure is unfailingly brilliant.

Karadaglic has already released three solo albums since Mediterraneo, his 2011 debut, and the present CD offers three more opportunities to hear him by himself.

However, putting Rodrigo's 1962 homage to Manuel de Falla just a track away from Falla's own 1920 homage to Debussy is perhaps more revealing than intended.

Both are exquisitely delivered but the Falla, less than half the length of the Rodrigo, is inestimably more effective.