Classical guitarist Sharon Isbin had Grammy nomination, hit record with Rodrigo music
Many music lovers, whether naturally inclined to classical music or not, would agree with Sharon Isbin’s assessment of Spanish composer Joaquin Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez.
“It’s a work tinged with cosmic greatness,” said Isbin, a world-renowned classical guitarist.
That observation is particularly true of the concerto’s slow, haunting second movement, as the guitar dominates with its poignantly reiterated and expressive central theme.
Most people have heard it, whether they know that it is the second movement of Concierto de Aranjuez they’re listening to or not. They’ve heard it in numerous popular replications. They’ve heard it at key emotional moments in movies or on a television show. They’ve even heard a snippet or two in television commercials — lots of commercials, in fact.
“It’s certainly one of the most beautiful works for an instrument and orchestra,” Isbin said.
If it is a familiar work no matter how we might recognize it, Isbin is more intimately acquainted with the concerto than most. She has played the piece, she estimated, “hundreds of times.” She has also made three recordings.
On Wednesday, Isbin will perform the melodic masterpiece yet again as she appears with the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra at Mechanics Hall in a concert presented by Music Worcester Inc. The program, conducted by Benjamin Zander, also includes Ravel’s Rhapsodie Espagnol and Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique.
Given that Isbin, 50, has played the work on numerous stages across the country and around the world, does she still find new things in it each time?
“Absolutely,” she replied during a recent telephone interview from her base in New York City. “The music has so much depth.”
Rodrigo (1901-99) was blinded by diphtheria at the age of 3 but learned to play the piano and violin with the help of Braille. It was as a composer for the classical guitar, however, that he left his indelible mark. Aranjuez is a town 30 miles southeast of Madrid dominated by a majestic royal summer palace. After his death, Rodrigo’s body was to be taken to Aranjuez so that admirers could pay their final respects.
Isbin noted that the concerto was written in the 1930s during an unhappy period after his wife had miscarried.
“To console himself, he would play this beautiful theme,” Isbin said. “The reason it’s so beautiful is that it is capturing the essence of the Spanish soul with its passion, longing and hope.”
As she finds new nuances, it’s a shared discovery and exploration with the orchestra she is playing with and the audience. “That’s the beauty of the spontaneity of a live performance,” she said.
Asked if we would notice a big difference in her interpretation now compared to 20 years ago, she replied “completely different.”
But that’s not all to do with Rodrigo.
“I feel I’m always growing and changing,” she said.
Looking at her life and career, that seems to be undoubtedly true for the outgoing and friendly sounding Isbin.
Isbin was born in Minneapolis, where her father was a chemical engineering professor at the University of Minnesota. The family moved to Italy for a while, and as a 9-year-old there she started playing the guitar. The guitar was just a diverting hobby at first, with Isbin intent on becoming a scientist like her father. But at the age of 14, her intentions changed.
She won a guitar competition.
“That was really it — walking up on stage in front of 5,000 people. That was more fun than launching grasshoppers in space.”
Actually, 25 years later one of her CD’s did end up in space. In November 1995, her “American Landscapes” recording was launched in the space shuttle Atlantis and presented to Russian cosmonauts during a rendezvous with Mir.
“I made it up somehow.”
It is one of many recognitions and honors that Isbin has received during her career.
While a teenager, Isbin studied with renowned guitarist Andrès Segovia (“he was certainly a very legendary figure; he was very positive,” Isbin recalled). She received her bachelor’s degree from Yale University and a master’s degree in music from the Yale School of Music. Other competition prizes and awards followed, and she has gone on to appear as a soloist with more than 160 orchestras, made more than 25 recordings (she is a multi-Grammy award-winner) and has commissioned many new works for the classical guitar. Meanwhile, she is director of guitar departments at the Aspen Music Festival and the Juilliard School, and is the author of the “Classical Guitar Answer Book.”
In 2004, she ventured a little outside of music when she appeared as herself in an episode of “The L-Word,” the Showtime drama series about a group of gay women. Isbin had come out as being a lesbian nine years earlier.
“Professionally, there’s never been anything negative that I’ve been aware of,” she said of coming out publicly. “It’s really wonderful to be in an age where I can be myself.”
As for appearing as herself in “The L-Word,” Isbin called it “great fun, a wonderful experience. The actors were a total delight. They made me feel completely at ease.”
Would she do something like that again?
“I’d certainly be happy to. But it was easy in that I was playing myself.”
In another related milieu, she is featured playing guitar on the soundtrack of Martin Scorsese’s “The Departed.” Academy Award-winning composer Howard Shore wrote the score for the film, which opened nationwide last week. The interview for this story was being conducted just before the world premiere of the movie, which Isbin would be attending, and she was clearly very excited about the prospect.
That said, don’t look for her to depart from her busy schedule of playing live musical performances. On the contrary.
“Right now I feel I’m in my absolute prime,” she said. “It’s not something I’m willing to give up any time soon.”
One of the motivators is sharing the joy of the beauty of a piece such as Concierto de Aranjuez.
“It’s really gratifying to see the effect it can have on people,” she said of performing and experiencing the reaction of the audience.
“I feel privileged to be part of that process.”
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Before Wednesday’s concert, Music Worcester will have its annual buffet dinner. At 7 p.m., Zander, the Boston Philharmonic’s director, will give a pre-concert lecture.
