The Concerto for Two Guitars and Orchestra by Germaine TAILLEFERRE

Rediscovered music by one's of the World's foremost French composers slated to be premièred in June.

Germaine Tailleferre's Concerto for Two Guitars and Orchestra will receive it's World Première in Weimar on June 30th by The German Guitar Duo of Chris Bilobram and Christina Altmann with the Orchestra of the Hochschule für Musik Franz Liszt under the direction of Christian Schumann. The Work will be performed again in Leipzig on July 7th and again in Weimar on September 25th before the work is recorded in October.

This première is even more of an event because it ends over thirty years of conjecture as to just where this work was and if it even existed.

The work, composed in the 60s for the French Radio, was never performed and it was rumoured that Tailleferre, always trusting with her performers, had given the score to a visiting Guitarist from South America in the hopes that it would be performed there. Tailleferre personally considered this work to be on of her strongest and regretted that it was never performed during her lifetime. Her description of the work motivated several musicologists and guitarists to spend many hours searching for the work in music archives and libraries.

The missing score was finally located during the Fall of 2003. A musician visiting the French Radio was intrigued however by a new addition to the catalogue and it was quickly confirmed that this was indeed the missing manuscript that so many musicologists and guitarists had been looking for all of these years.

Chris Bilobram, who is one of the Soloists for the World Première, has spent many years researching and documenting music written by Women Composers for the Guitar. The Tailleferre Estate chose her project over many others because of her dedication to the cause of music written by women and also for the scholarly seriousness of her work.

The work is in four movements and is scored for 2011/1000 tymp/harp/celesta/strings and lasts aproximately 17 minutes. The work is more in the style of a "concerto grosso" than that of a virtuosic concerto, with the guitars frequently used in a solo group with the harp and celesta, which adds a very interesting orchestral colour. The writing is varied, ranging from a medieval "cantilène" style in the slow movement to free atonal sections in the second "Scherzo" movement and in the first movement. The work ends in a movement which sounds influenced by South American Popular music. Inspite of this apparent stylistic disparity, the composition remains extremely coherent and shows a great deal of energy and a kind of poetic strangeness.

Although the mystery surrounding the Concerto for Two Guitars has now been solved, another mystery concerning a Concertino for Solo Guitar and Chamber Ensemble (scored for Flute, Oboe, Clarinet, Trumpet, Horn, Piano, Percussion, Two Violins and Contrabass) remains. The work is cited on page 267 of George Hacquard's Book "Germaine Tailleferre, La Dame des Six" (L'Harmatten, 1998) and in no other sources. Robert Shapiro, author of "Germaine Tailleferre a Biblio-biography" (Greenwood Press, 1994) does not cite this work in his book but has confirmed in a letter to the Tailleferre Estate that he has seen this work in Paris. Perhaps one day this work will also be available to the World....

For more information about the première and the overall cultural project surrounding these concerts, please contact :

Kristof Gerlach (Cultural Manager)

Schützengasse 12

99423 Weimar

0179 – 9063367

03643 - 776848

email : kristof.gerlach@web.de

The Concerto for Two Guitars and Orchestra is available for sale in a reduction for two guitars and piano. The orchestral material is on rental.