Gramophone Magazine
Awards Issue 2020
Editor's Choice

Thibaut Garcia (guitar)

Rodrigo: Concierto de Aranjuez
Sainz de la Maza: La frontera de Dios: V. Sacrificio
Sainz de la Maza: Zapateado
Sainz de la Maza: Rondeña
Sainz de la Maza: El Vito
Tansman: Musique de cour d'après Robert de Visée
Visée: De Visée / Transcr. Garcia

Expressing his own cultural identity, guitarist Thibaut Garcia combines Rodrigo's archetypally Spanish 'Concierto de Aranjuez' with a declaration of l'esprit français: Alexandre Tansman's neoclassical 'Musique de cour', inspired by the court of Louis XIV. Garcia's heritage is Spanish, but he is French, born in the city of Toulouse, where this album was recorded with the Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse and the young British conductor Ben Glassberg.

"Rarely has such a combination of virtuosity, intelligence, character and flair been brought to bear on this most popular of all concertos… Garcia’s ability to meticulously mould the trajectory of a strum as much as a phrase, without the slightest hint of premeditation, stems from locating the emotional epicentre of the Rodrigo in the Adagio’s cadenza and working outwards." - Gramophone Magazine, Awards Issue 2020.