CONTEMPORARY GUITAR CONCERTO
This page features contemporary guitar concertos and progressive guitar concerti. The collection includes original guitar concertos and virtuoso guitar concertos, showcasing modern works for guitar and orchestra.
CONTEMPORARY GUITAR CONCERTOS
GUITAR CONCERTO
for guitar and orchestra
Duration:
21'30" minutes
Instrumentation:
Guitar solo, 2 flutes (2nd doubles Piccolo); 2 oboes (2nd doubles English horn); 2 clarinets (2nd doubles bass clarinet); 2 bassoons; 2 horns; 1 percussion; harp;
celeste; strings
Year Composed:
2010
Written For:
Luiz Mantovani
Commissioned By:
The Israel Sinfonietta Beer Sheva with funds from the Israel Ministry of culture and the Adele and John Gray Memorial Endowment Fund.
Premiere Performance:
16 October, 2010
Beer Sheva, Israel
Luiz Mantovani, guitar
Beer Sheva Sinfonietta
Doron Solomon, conductor
Related Music:
About Guitar Concerto
The Guitar Concerto is a 21‑minute work in four interconnected movements, composed in 2010 for guitarist Luiz Mantovani. The piece grew out of a long artistic friendship and a shared curiosity about how the guitar might expand within an orchestral environment. Rather than setting the soloist against the ensemble, the concerto treats the orchestra as an extension of the guitar’s color and resonance. Recurring motifs appear throughout the movements, each transformed through shifting timbres and textures. The result is a lyrical, intimate concerto that highlights the guitar’s expressive range while weaving it seamlessly into the orchestral fabric.
For the Performers
Level: Ideal for professional guitar soloists and advanced university or conservatory orchestras comfortable with contemporary coloristic writing.
Programming: A strong choice for guitar‑focused concerts, contemporary concerto programs, and seasons highlighting new orchestral works.
Style: Four connected movements; recurring motifs; orchestra functions as a coloristic extension of the guitar rather than a traditional foil.
Program Notes
The Guitar Concerto (2010) is the result of a long-standing friendship with the Brazilian guitarist Luiz Mantovani. As students in Boston, we often imagined how a new concerto for Luiz would sound. When Maestro Doron Solomon, himself an accomplished guitarist, approached me regarding a new orchestral work for the Beer Sheva Sinfonietta, the idea of a guitar concerto was enthusiastically accepted.
The concerto consists of four interconnected movements. Several motifs recur throughout the work, each treated and colored differently from one movement to the next. The orchestra, in a sense, serves as an extension of the guitar rather than a contrasting entity.
Guitar Concerto was written for Luiz Mantovani and the Israeli Sinfonietta Beer Sheva, with Doron Solomon as music director. Its commission was kindly supported by the Israel Ministry for Culture and Sport and by the Adele and John Gray Foundation.
Selected Guitar Concerto Repertoire
1. Malcolm Arnold – Guitar Concerto, Op. 67 – Guitar & Orchestra – 1959
2. Sérgio Assad – Interchange – Guitar Quartet & Orchestra – 2009
3. Leo Brouwer – Concierto de Toronto – Guitar & Orchestra – 1987
4. Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco – Concerto in D, Op. 99 – Guitar & Orchestra – 1939
5. John Corigliano – Troubadours – Guitar & Orchestra – 1993
6. Carlo Domeniconi – Concerto Mediterraneo – Guitar & Orchestra – 1993
7. Roland Dyens – Concerto Métis – Guitar & Orchestra – 1998
8. Hans Werner Henze – An eine Äolsharfe – Guitar & Chamber Orchestra – 1985
9. Manuel Ponce – Concierto del Sur – Guitar & Orchestra – 1941
10. Joaquín Rodrigo – Concierto de Aranjuez – Guitar & Orchestra – 1939
11. Joaquín Rodrigo – Fantasía para un gentilhombre – Guitar & Orchestra – 1954
12. Toru Takemitsu – To the Edge of Dream – Guitar & Orchestra – 1983
13. Heitor Villa-Lobos – Concerto for Guitar and Small Orchestra – Guitar & Chamber Orchestra – 1951