The Fuga Elegiaca of 1967 was written as a response to the passing of Ida Presti at the tragically young age of 43, and also proved to be one of the composer’s last works before his death in March 1968.

Les Guitares Bien Tempérées, (or 24 Preludes and Fugues for Two Guitars) was a landmark in the history of guitar playing, and in a sense, pays tribute to the great J. S. Bach. On this recording we have the last twelve of these—the first twelve being on Volume 1. The keys are selected by using a cycle of rising fifths alternating major and minor keys (the first is no. 13 in G major). These are no mere exercises for the duet but full of melodic invention, and one or two surprises; like the use of the tune ‘I Hear America Singing’ (which to me sounds like the opening of ‘I Got Plenty o’ Nuttin’ from Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess). He also uses various dance styles and rhythms—Minuet and Trio in no. 13; Bourrée in no. 17; a 6/8 Siciliana in no. 21—which look back to the Baroque era and J.S. Bach. The use of a guitar duo allows a greater variety of colours and harmonic discords than would be possible with just a single guitar.

The Brasil Guitar Duo give very accomplished rendition of this music, playing with formidable technique and style. I think that they are helped sonically by the fact that the guitars are made by the same maker—Sergio Abreu from Rio de Janeiro. This gives them something I always ‘bang on about’ with choral music—a good blend and integrated sound.

The recorded sound is excellent with the players not too close, and the acoustic not too reverberant adding clarity to the various fugal entries. The booklet gives information on the composer, players, a short description of each piece, and the jewel case insert has a full track listing.

In short, a thoroughly enjoyable and recommendable issue, and one to which I will return regularly.

The Sonatina Canonica is a pleasant miniature, which fills the time. It’s delightful but without depth. But what else would you want from such a piece? After a short time you don’t really notice that you’re listening to canonic writing, and the mind can simply enjoy the interplay between the instruments.

Fuga elegiaca was one of the composer’s final works, and it is in two parts—Prelude and Fugue. The Prelude is probably the most sheerly joyous music on both CDs; it’s a roller-coaster ride and sets the scene for a more solemn, but not too much so, fugue. This is a delight. In a way, I wish that there could have been more music like this here.

Les Guitares Bien Tempérées is a much more serious work, by which I mean that it is not light in the way that the Sonatina is light. These pieces are not primarily for entertainment, but there is much music here which is truly enjoyable. I would never have thought that it was possible to get so much variety from two guitars. Castelnuovo-Tedesco fills his pieces with every emotion imaginable, from pathos to, almost, belly laugh (is that an emotion?) There are light and breezy pieces, serious inventions, dance type pieces—very holiday advertisement time—and all this wide variety of invention adds up to a very satisfying and pleasurable whole…if you’re into the guitar, then you’ll lap up every minute of these discs.

This disc completes the cycle started on Naxos 8.570778 with Preludes and Fugues 13–24. Due to very careful dating on the manuscripts we know that these pieces were all written during a period of intense creativity between 14 May and 3 June 1962—some fifty minutes of music composed in little more than two weeks. Perhaps this reflects the compositional discipline he learnt as a Fascist refugee film music composer in California between 1940 and 1956.

Clearly there is an intentional homage here to Bach’s famous keyboard cycle of a similar name…I’m sure that Graham Wade in his liner-notes is quite right to say that they are in effect a much more personal musical diary recording the composer’s moods and emotions over an intense but short period of time…For sure these pieces will repay close and detailed listening but at the same time they can be enjoyed in a much more relaxed and superficial way too. They are exquisitely played by the Brasil Guitar Duo. Their ensemble, tuning, and total immersion in this sound-world is exemplary. You simply do not hear this as two instruments—listen to the intricate interplay of Prelude No.16 in E minor (track 9)—this is far harder to bring off than the Brasil Duo make it sound. They seem totally at ease with the water-colour miniaturist world of this music too—the Prelude No.18 in F# minor (track 13) is a perfect example. Every subtle nuance is carefully etched and all have been recorded in the naturally warm acoustic of St John Chrysostom Ontario that Naxos use for so many of their chamber music recordings.

The disc closes with the brief four and a half minute Fuga elegiaca which occupies a very similar spiritual world to the main work. This makes for a reasonably modestly filled CD but one that fulfils its remit to perfection. For those who already own volume 1 there will be no hesitation and for those who don’t this would seem to be an ideal introduction to the elegant and graceful sound-world of this composer…Music of refinement and beauty performed with enormous technical sophistication and musical taste.