Capricho Arabe

The Anacrouse collection offers pianists, beginners and advanced alike, a wide choice of classical works from the Renaissance to the present day. It brings together major works of the repertoire as well as rarer pieces, and also offers transcriptions for piano solo or four hands, selected for their musical and educational interest. Each score, available individually, benefits from careful editorial work: a rigorously established musical text, clear and legible engraving, accompanied by a short biography of the composer and a note on the work.

The solo piano transcription of “Capricho Árabe”, made by César de Gurbert, is a work of adaptation founded on a fine knowledge of both instruments. As the transcriber points out, Francisco Tárrega was himself an excellent pianist, and his guitar writing sometimes bears the mark of it. The challenge of this version lies not only in transposing the notes, but in a subtle handling of proportions: to respect the spirit of the original work, almost the entire range of the keyboard and the full dynamic power of the piano had to be used. The quality of this edition shows in precise fingerings that make this concert piece easier to perform, as well as in airy music engraving of great clarity.

Composed in 1892 by Francisco Tárrega (1852-1909), this Capricho is the masterpiece of Spanish Orientalism. Born of a journey to Andalusia, it marries the Arab-Andalusian heritage with Romantic lyricism. The piece alternates an improvised introduction with a main theme of great melodic nobility, demanding from the performer a subtle mastery of agogics. Through César de Gurbert’s work, this declaration of love to the guitar becomes a piano page of great depth, offering the keyboard all the passion and melancholy of the Iberian soul.