Andras Csaki, Guitar!
The Hungarian guitarist, András Csáki, began to play the guitar at the age of 11. In 1996 he was admitted to the Béla Bartók Conservatory of Music, and in the year of 2002 he continued his studies at Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest, where he graduated with honors in 2007.
András Csáki’s international career started in 1999 after winning the “26th Dr. Luis Sigall” International Musical Competition in Chile . This prestigious contest brought him a large number of concert opportunities, he played recitals in Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Canada, Chile, the Czech Republic, France, Greece, Poland, Germany, Japan, Norway, Romania, Serbia, Montenegro, Slovakia, Spain, Venezuela and the USA. Since that time he has taken part in numerous additional international competitions.
In 2009, Andras Csaki was awarded first prize in the 42nd Michele Pittaluga Guitar Competition in Alessandria, Italy. In this wide-ranging recital he interpreted Bach’s most technically challenging ‘lute suites’, Britten’s groundbreaking tribute to John Dowland, Duarte’s bravura Variations and one of Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s finest solo sonatas. These are the selections that are captured on this very interesting Naxos recording. I particularly enjoyed the John Duarte music, and also the Castelnuvo-Tedesco, which we don’t hear all that often. In addition, I found the sound engineering on this CD to be really excellent!
The CD tracks on this recording are as follows:
Bach: Lute Partita in E major, BWV 1006a (arr. for guitar)
Britten: Nocturnal after John Dowland: Reflections on Come, heavy sleep, Op. 70
John Duarte: Variations on a Catalan Folksong, Op. 25, “Canco de Llabre”
Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco: Guitar Sonata in D major, Op. 77, “Omaggio a Boccherini”
Here’s a video of Andras Csaki, performing the music of Rodrigo:
Tags: Andras Csaki, Britten, Duarte, Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Guitar