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Main Stage :: Bay of Barrueco

Bay of Barrueco

Classical Guitarist Manuel Barrueco brings an adventurous new collaboration to New York

December 05, 2006

One of the premiere classical guitarists of today, Manuel Barrueco has been seen playing not only solo repertoire from Bach to Beatles, but in invigorating partnerships with musicians ranging from Plácido Domingo to Andy Summers. This weekend, Barrueco brings his latest collaboration to New York, a performance with Cuarteto Latinoamericano and the Manhattan premiere of a new work by Michael Daugherty.

Urban Guitar: When did you begin working with the Cuarteto Latinoamericano?

Manuel Barrueco: I got in contact with them because I wanted to develop some Latin American repertoire with guitar and string quartet. Also, Michael Daugherty was going to be writing a piece for me, and I thought it would be great to do it with them. And it turned out to be great- they’re a really, really good group.

Urban Guitar: How did you choose the repertoire that you will be performing?

Manuel Barrueco: Originally I wanted to develop something with Piazzolla, so that was the core of it. Then we started looking at some other repertoire and as you know, there isn’t that much music for guitar and string quartet that is good, particularly in Latin American repertoire, which is the area we wanted to concentrate on. I also wanted to play Tríptico by Roberto Sierra, because I think it’s one of the best quintets ever written for guitar, and I thought it should be on the program. And then we had the commissioned piece.

Urban Guitar: You’ll be performing the NY premiere of Michael Daugherty’s Bay of Pigs, which was written for you.

Manuel Barrueco: I originally came to know Michael’s music through a piece called Metropolis- you know, like Superman- that was played at the Baltimore Symphony, and it was really a lot of fun. Then I saw that he had a piece called I Loved Lucyfor flute and guitar, and I have played it in a lot of concerts. So it was my idea to contact him, and I was curious to see what he would write in this situation, with the guitar being the main instrument.

The thing about Michael is that he bases his music on a lot of pop culture- I think of him as the Andy Warhol of classical music. To be honest, I thought he would write something like that. I was quite shocked when he told me that he was going to call the piece Bay of Pigs. But it turned out to be a fun piece to play. I was also shocked when he told me that certain chords in the first movement came from Jimi Hendrix or The Doors.

Urban Guitar: Did you work with Daugherty directly?

Manuel Barrueco: I met with him for quite sometime- he wanted to get some ideas, and after he wrote the music I also gave some feedback. Then after he heard us perform, he revised the whole ending- The sound he had in his mind was a crescendo with all of us hitting the instruments like percussion, but it just wasn’t getting the effect that he wanted because we would have had to hit the instruments so hard. So he changed it.

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