Remembering the Alhambra

When, thirty years ago, I heard for the first time Recuerdos de la Alhambra played by Narciso Yepes, I thought it was a terribly difficult piece, a for-four-hands written for a single guitar, the peak of virtuoso guitar. But I was so fascinated by it that I asked my teacher to let me have it as my exam piece. Just as I was practicing, I realized how simple it was. It is one single calm, big-hearted romantic tune, like a Venetian gondoliere song. And this light and spacious framework is constantly woven around by the tremolo of the three middle fingers, this creates the crystal palace, as British Romanticism called the Alhambra. Because the Alhambra itself is built like this.


Francisco Tarrega: Recuerdos de la Alhambra (1896). Leo Brouwer’s concert recording from the 1970s