Guitarist Sean Shibe excels in a recording of French and Spanish music

ALL ABOUT THE ARTS

Camino is guitarist Sean Shibe’s first of which we hope will be many recordings for PENTATONE.

It is an imaginatively programmed recording in which the music of Spanish composers Manuel de Falla, Federico Mompou, and Antonio José shares the attention of the artist with that of French composers Eric Satie, Francis Poulenc, and Maurice Ravel.

Ravel’s Pavane pour une Infante défunte, Satie’s Gymnopédie No.1 and Gnossiennes 1 and 3, Poulenc’s Sarabande, and de Falla’s utterly French Homenaje a Claude Debussy are given elegantly idiomatic readings by Shibe.

In the Gypsy-inflected Danza del Molinero from Falla’s El Sombrero de Tres Picos Shibe’s guitar catches on Iberian fire, teasing the listener’s appetite for more Spanish music in Shibe’s near future.

Until know I had been ignorant of the contribution that Antonio José made to Spanish music. Based on José’s Pavana Triste, here beautifully played by Sean Shibe I am eager to further explore this composer’s music.

Federico Mompou has long held a special place in the heart of those who love Spanish music, so that listeners to this elegant album will be grateful to have the Catalan composer’s ever delicate Canços i dansas 6 and 10, as well as his lively Suite Compostelana to enjoy as lovingly played by Shibe.

The recording’s engineering is beyond reproach as is the production of the album.

Rafael de Acha    ALL ABOUT THE ARTS

Published by ALL ABOUT THE ARTS

Rafael de Acha has enjoyed a distinguished career in the arts as a performer, stage director, producer, and educator. He was born and grew up in Cuba. At the age of 17 he moved to the United States to study Drama at the University of Minnesota, and later Languages at L.A. City College, Music at the Juilliard School of Music, at the University of Cincinnati’s College Conservatory of Music, and at the New England Conservatory of Music, from which he received the Master's degree. He has taught courses on the History of Music at the University of Miami’s Frost School of Music and at Florida International University, and contributed writings and reviews to Seen and Heard International (www.seenandheard-international.com ) and to this blog. He co-founded the award-winning New Theatre in Coral Gables, Florida, where he produced and staged twenty seasons of classical and contemporary theater, including fifty world premieres of plays that went on to have international and national productions on and off Broadway, including Ana in the Tropics by Nilo Cruz (Pulitzer Prize for Drama 2002 and Tony Nomination 2003.) In 2006 he was presented with a citation from The Dade County Cultural Affairs Council for “trailblazing contributions to the arts in South Florida.”