In 1962, Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco composed his Concerto for Two Guitars and Orchestra, op. 201 at the request of the celebrated Duo Presti Lagoya (Ida Presti and Alexandre Lagoya). The world premiere took place on December 4 of that year in Toronto, with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra conducted by Walter Susskind, with Presti and Lagoya as soloists. A newly released CD from the Canadian label Doremi Music allows us to hear a live recording of the Concerto, broadcast by the French radio service France Musique—a recording that was, in all likelihood, made on the very night of the premiere.
In the liner notes, Jack Silver, a collector of rare recordings who produced the project for Doremi Music, enlightens us about the piece’s reception. Silver recounts that Udo Kasemets, a composer of experimental music and music critic at the Toronto Star, expressed reservations about combining guitars with a full orchestra, yet acknowledged “that Miss Presti and Mr. Lagoya [were] artists of the first rank…”
The concerto itself, however, received a somewhat cooler reception: Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s music was considered out of style. In his review, John Kraglund, the music critic of the Toronto Globe and Mail perceptively cited Mario’s own words printed in the evening’s program—a succinct expression of his artistic philosophy and intentions for the work:
I am indifferent to all kinds of fashions, and I write in my own idiom, which is simple, melodious, and clear. I simply tried to write a work which should be, for the performers, pleasant to play and for the audience, pleasant to listen to.
Presti and Lagoya went on to perform the concerto on several occasions in the following years. Their final performance of the work took place on April 23, 1967, with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra—just one day before the sudden and untimely death of Ida Presti at the age of 42.
Thanks to Jack Silver and everyone involved in this project, we now have the rare opportunity to discover an important piece of guitar history, which we hope will, in turn, inspire others to take up this splendid concerto.
The recording is available on all major digital platforms and on CD.