Córdoba, (EFE).- The composer and guitarist José Antonio Rodríguez delighted with his tribute concert to Picasso at the Córdoba Guitar Festival in an incomparable setting such as the Patio de Los Naranjos of the Mosque-Cathedral, a stage that “puts image to my music”, acknowledges the Cordovan artist in a meeting with EFE.
His work “El guitarrista azul”, which he performed together with the Cordoba Orchestra between the outer walls of a World Heritage Site and which is recovered for the Guitar Festival, is a “heartfelt” tribute to the Malaga painter Picasso, when It is the 50th anniversary of his death, and his “blue period”, perhaps one of the most unknown of the brilliant artist.
For this reason, holding the concert in this setting “is not by chance”, in an “incredible place in a major city in world culture”. A city and a historic quarter through which “I walked as a child to go to the conservatory”, which is why, without a doubt, last night’s concert was very “special” and a “wonderful” moment, he confesses.
The heat was attenuating its presence and the time of the concert, at 10:00 p.m., was “very suggestive”, so that all attendees, with a Patio de Los Naranjos de la Mezquita-Cathedral without a free space, could “enjoy” with his music.
The most impressionistic side of José Antonio Rodríguez
Together with the Cordoba Orchestra, conducted by maestro Michael Thomas, José Antonio Rodríguez explains that his work “El guitarrista azul” is a piece for “flamenco guitar and orchestra” that reflects his more “impressionist” side and has tried to make this composition It is considered as “the soundtrack of Picasso’s blue period”.
“El guitarrista azul is the result of that accumulation of sensations that are produced at the moment of creation. That accompanied loneliness, which takes you along the paths of bitterness, tenderness, impotence, love”, says the artist.
Picasso “was always a figure that excited me, especially his blue period, so close to me, full of restlessness, search, even indifference. Feelings that forced me to compose, not basing myself on the work of this brilliant painter of haste, but imagining his inner world”, explains Rodríguez.
In the first part of the concert, the Cordovan maestro was exclusively accompanied by his group, made up of Manuel Montero on second guitar, Paco Peña on electric bass and Patricio Cámara “Pachi” on percussion, while in the second part the Orchestra took part cordovan
“I have tried to express with music the perhaps least attractive part of the artist for the general public and, nevertheless, so important to me. The inner world of him, from which he gives life to his work”, points out José Antonio Rodríguez, who recognizes that this concert is the” sound expression of an era and a phase” of his life that” also I have lived “.
Paco de Lucía, Manolo Sanlúcar, Camarón…
José Antonio Rodríguez, 59 years old, is one of the most recognized guitarists from Córdoba on the international scene and his first great prize came in 1981 as the winner in the Flamenco Guitar Concert category at the XXI Festival de Cante de las Minas de la Unión.
After achieving the official title of Professor of Flamenco Guitar a year later at the Conservatory of Music of Córdoba, at the age of 20 he became the youngest guitar teacher specializing in flamenco.
He has worked with renowned artists such as Paco de Lucia, Joan Albert Amargós, Enrique Morente, Manolo Sanlúcar or Camarón de la Isla himself, while his “Blue Guitarist”, with which he delighted the audience at the Mosque-Cathedral, premiered in 2001 commissioned by the famous Córdoba Flamenco Art Contest. EFE