The historically male-dominated world of classical guitar continues to benefit from the emergence of a world-class group of women performers, as demonstrated on this recording by Lily Afshar.

    Inspired by series of etchings by the Spanish painter Francisco Goya, Castelnuovo-Tedesco composed the monumental 24 Caprichos de Goya in 1961. The seventy-six minute work was originally conceived as a recording project for Andrés Segovia, who unfortunately never did record it. The Caprichos were divided into four volumes, each containing six pieces.

    Afshar has studied this work extensively and knows it intimately. Her well-researched article on the Caprichos appeared as a three-part series in Guitar Review magazine [GR 79-81]. It provided background information on Goya and Castelnuovo-Tedesco, traced the history of the etchings and the composition, and analyzed the relationship between them. It also described the musical structure of the work, analyzed each piece in detail, and included reproductions of many of the etchings. I would strongly recommend the article for a full appreciation of the richness of the Caprichos.

    Capricho No.1, Francisco Goya y Lucientes, pintor, is based on a self-portrait of Goya. Beginning with a musical motto on Goya's name, it includes a three-voice fugue. Afshar's performance is characterized by a warm, rich sound that brings out both the stateliness and mystery of the piece. In contrast, Capricho No. 2, Tal para qual, uses a Fandango tempo to capture the playfulness in Goya's etching of a flirtation scene. Afshar's performance of Capricho No. 5, El amor y la muerte, is particularly noteworthy in that she captures the rhythmic feel of the tango in the repeated chords used throughout the piece.

    Capricho No. 12, No hubo remedio, makes use of a Passacaglia to represent the ride of an Inquisition victim to her execution. Here, Afshar uses a bell-like sound on the chords to create the associated imagery. Capricho no. 24, Sueño de la mentira e inconstancia, is based on a print depicting a love affair between Goya and the Duchess of Alba. As an analog to the mirror images in the print, the music contains a fugue whose subject also appears in inversion. Afshar plays this final piece with a similar feeling to the first piece, since the two pieces have in common a musical motto on Goya's name and a fugue. Although this is the only musical bond in the work, the use of dance forms throughout helps give the pieces a feeling of cohesiveness.

    The performance is an unequivocal success. Afshar clearly loves playing this musically and technically difficult work. Her playing is characterized by effective use of dynamics and tonal variation, well-defined phrasing and articulation, and a strong technique. She gets a superb sound from the 1992 Thomas Humphrey Millennium guitar used on this recording. Her program notes are brief but good. They contain a small reproduction of the twenty-four etchings along with a one- or two-sentence description of each. Highly recommended.

    Jim Tosone is a Contributing Editor and Staff Reviewer for Guitar Review magazine. He has written for Soundboard magazine and authored the classical guitar entries for the three-volume Music in the Twentieth Century.


His new book, Classical Guitarists: Conversations, contains in-depth interviews with Bream, Williams, Fisk, Isbin, Starobin, Tanenbaum and others. It also includes reviews of their CDs and concerts, and a discography of their recordings.

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