HAUSER & Petrit Çeku – Concierto de Aranjuez

Those familiar with my life know I have a deep connection to Zagreb, Croatia. During a very blessed and fortuitous three-month visit in 1988, the seeds for what would eventually become my 1992 CD, Memories Of Zagreb, began to take root.

The concert you enjoy above was performed in Zabreb. Wish I could have been there.

My companion on that extraordinary 1988 Balkan excursion has often said of Rodrigo’s masterpiece, “After Albinoni’s Adagio, this is likely the second-most beautiful piece of music ever written for the human soul.” I would tend to agree. ~JF

Hauser and Petrit Çeku performing Adagio from Concierto de Aranjuez with the Zagreb Philharmonic Orchestra at the Lisinski Concert Hall in Zagreb, October 2017. Elisabeth Fuchs, conductor.

• Arrangement by Hauser and Filip Sljivac
• Filmed and edited by MedVid production
• Sound and mixing by Morris Studio

The Concierto de Aranjuez (“Aranjuez Concerto”) is a concerto for classical guitar by the Spanish composer Joaquín Rodrigo. Written in 1939, it is by far Rodrigo’s best-known work, and its success established his reputation as one of the most significant Spanish composers of the 20th century.

The Concierto de Aranjuez was inspired by the gardens at the Royal Palace of Aranjuez, the spring resort palace and gardens built by Philip II in the last half of the 16th century and rebuilt in the middle of the 18th century by Ferdinand VI. The work attempts to transport the listener to another place and time through the evocation of the sounds of nature.