Pablo Cohen plays @ “4:00 am”
World premier recording of classical arrangements and transcriptions of piano music by Chick Corea, Egberto Gismonti, Carlos Guastavino and Horacio Salgán. Including works by Isaías Savio, Dilermando Reis, Marlos Nobre and Radamés Gnattali.

To Angela, Simon and David

The classical guitar has been a catalyst in the creation of a unique connection to the works of important composers who otherwise would have never written for the instrument. This connection has been achieved through the processes of transcription and arrangement. In the traditional guitar literature, the piano works of Albéniz and Granados are a very good example of the connection between these composers of Spanish nationalistic music, and the folk traditions and popular spirit of the guitar. The music of Brazil and Argentina relates to the guitar in a similar way, whether if it is of rural or urban origin or if it crosses over between classical or jazz styles, transferring this music to the guitar deeply ties with this sense of nationality as only very few instruments can convey. The piano is perhaps not one of those instruments, however when some of its repertoire is transcribed for the guitar, the music seems to find its true voice as if these pieces were meant to be written for guitar.

Although little known in Europe, Isaias Savio (Montevideo, Uruguay 1900- São Paulo, Brazil 1977). He was one of the greatest teachers of classical guitar in Brazil, with a great influence in the rest of South America as well. Savio arrived in Brazil in 1931 and remained there as a nationalized Brazilian citizen until his death in 1977.
At the São Paulo Conservatory, he had a major influence upon students such as Luis Bonfá, Paulo Bellinati, Turibio Santos, Carlos Barbosa-Lima, Antonio Rabello and others. As a composer, Savio was strongly influenced by Tárrega and Barrios for whom he felt great admiration. Escuta coração (Seresta), is in the tradition of Brazilian modinhas and is part of the collection Cenas Brasileiras.

Dilermando Reis (1916-1977) was probably the most important and famous guitarist of Brazil. He was born in Sao Paulo, but he worked most of his life in Rio de Janeiro. His many recordings included over 40 albums between 1941 and 1975, and his frequent broadcasts on national radio made him a recognized musical figure in Brazil. His guitar output includes genres such as choro and maxixe, as well as other traditional Brazilian styles. Si ela um día is one of his original guitar pieces. There is also a version for voice and accompaniment with lyrics that complement very well the feel of nostalgy or “saudade.”

In the 1920s, Heitor Villa-Lobos involved himself deeply with Brazilian folk traditions as the basis for a musical nationalism. Some of his most engaging works combine European and native Brazilian elements. Viola quebrada is a traditional song that Villa-Lobos transcribed himself for the piano. Later this piece was transcribed once more for the guitar by Laurindo Almeida. It is a good example of the influence in Brazilian music of traditional fados, saudades, and modinhas from Portugal.

Radamés Gnattali (Rio de Janeiro 1906 -1988) was a virtuosic pianist and a prolific composer. He also played cavaquinho, loved the guitar and wrote many pieces for the instrument. His output for classical guitar is particularly large including solo and ensemble music, as well as several guitar concerti. He was very familiar with jazz, and was regarded as a major contributor to the bossa-nova movement with sophisticated orchestrations and original ideas. Although he subscribed to the aesthetic of impressionism, Gnattali referred to his music as Brazilian and when writing for guitar he was never far away from his roots in choro and samba. Etudo no. V (Viola Caipira) and Frevo are good examples of his exquisite writing for the instrument.

Marlos Nobre (February 18, 1939 in Recife, Brazil). His eclectic compositional style features a mixture of classical techniques such as polytonality, atonality and serialism combined with stylistic and conceptual influences from Brazilian traditional and popular music. Ciclo Nordestino No.1 op. 5 is inspired in airs and musical gestures from the Brazilian Northeastern, the Sertão region represented by the caboclo people.

Guastavino’s music is charged with nostalgic and melancholic connotations and conveys a sense of the past. His music is evocative, based on folk and poetic forms. He does not attempt to engage in progressive trends or extensive forms, but rather his simple language and romantic style naturally fit his own personality and temperament. Primarily a composer for choir and art song repertoire, he enjoyed some recognition outside Argentina mainly due to his voice and piano scores, recorded by artists such as Jose Carreras, Teresa Berganza, Victoria de los Angeles and Elly Ameling. His association with Manuel de Falla should be noted. Guastavino met the Spanish composer and visited him a number of times as De Falla expressed interest in Guastavino’s music and discussed with him some of his songs and piano works.

Guastavino (Santa Fé 1912 - Buenos Aires 2000) always liked the guitar and recognized its popular appeal and its natural association with the folk traditions of Argentina. In addition to his original guitar works and the Cantilenas for piano that Guastavino transcribed during the sixties, a large number of pieces from his other piano and song collections lend themselves very well to transcription and arrangement for classical guitar. For this recording the pieces are one is his songs, Se equivocó la paloma, and Fermina from the collection Mis amigos.

Roberto Grela was born in 1913 in the San Telmo neighborhood of Buenos Aires, Argentina. At the age of 17 he was already beginning to play the guitar professionally. During his extensive career he accompanied renowned artists such as Edmundo Rivero, Jorge Casal, Héctor Mauré, Nelly Omar, Jorge Vidal, Alberto Podestá, Tito Reyes, Alberto Serna, as well as the eminent Leopoldo Federico and the great Aníbal Troilo, bandoneon player with whom he formed "Troilo-Grela", one of the most remembered tango duos. He died on September 6, 1992. Today he is considered one of the greatest guitarists of the genre. The area of San Telmo neighborhood in Buenos Aires, had been for a long time a territory of poets and tango men. A San Telmo, is a tango that represents the musical evolution that developed in Buenos Aires during the first half of the Century. It is an example of a good, danceable tango, with strong rhythmical gestures and cadences, and with a style that is best represented by the guitar.

Horacio Salgán (Buenos Aires, 1916) started learning piano at an early age, and at thirteen already caused a great impression at the Conservatorio Municipal for his virtuosic performances of the most demanding classical piano literature. His professional career started early as well. At the age of fourteen, he worked as a silent film pianist as well as performing in orchestras of a variety of styles including jazz, Latin American and tango. He soon started to perform at many radio stations and directed his own tango orchestras. With the decline of the live radio shows, Salgán developed other ensemble combinations being particularly interesting a guitar and piano duet (Salgán-De Lio,) as well as a very prestigious piano quintet including guitar (“Quinteto Real”). The majorities of his compositions are keyboard pieces, and are very inspired, refined, crafty and witty, in a way very similar to a Scarlatti sonata. His orchestrations, and arrangements of traditional tangos, as well as of his own compositions, place him as one of the foremost pianist, composer and arrangers in the history of tango. Although not considered tangos, Mimí Fasolfa and El bosque mágico are still good examples of Salgán style and refinement.

Since embarking on a solo career in 1966, Armando Anthony "Chick" Corea (June 12, 1941 – February 9, 2021) has been at the forefront of jazz, both as a renowned pianist forging new ground with his acoustic jazz bands and as an innovative electric keyboardist with Return to Forever, the Elektric Band, and the electro/acoustic Vigil. A twenty-three-time Grammy winner, Chick Corea has attained living legend status as a keyboard jazz virtuoso, after five decades of unparalleled creativity and an artistic output that is simply staggering. Chick is the fourth-most-nominated artist in the history of the Grammys, with 65 nominations. He's also earned 3 Latin Grammy Awards, the most of any artist in the Best Instrumental Album category. His compositions "Spain", "500 Miles High", "La Fiesta", "Armando's Rhumba", and "Windows" are widely considered jazz standards. As a member of Miles Davis's band in the late 1960s, he participated in the birth of jazz fusion, and in the 1970s he formed Return to Forever. Along with McCoy Tyner, Herbie Hancock and Keith Jarrett, Corea is considered one of the foremost jazz pianists of the post-John Coltrane era.

From straight ahead to avant-garde, bebop to fusion, children's songs to chamber music, along with some far-reaching forays into symphonic works, Chick Corea has touched an astonishing number of musical bases in his illustrious career while maintaining a standard of excellence that is awe-inspiring. A tirelessly creative spirit.

Egberto Gismonti (Rio de Janeiro, 1947) is recognized around the world for his innovation and crossover style. He began his formal music studies on piano at the age of six. After studying classical music for many years, he went to Paris and when returning to Brazil, Gismonti began to live a musical life broader than the classical world of music. He was attracted by Ravel's ideas of orchestration and chord voicing, and also by the choro, modinha, frevo, baiáo, maracatú and other traditional Brazilian styles. Although his main instrument was always the piano, he spent some years experimenting with the guitar, its different tuning possibilities as well as searching for new sounds and colors. For him, popular and serious music are not opposite poles. In his view there is no difference between the two. His rhythms, carefully constructed, never suffer from a lack of pulsating energy, and in harmonic terms, Gismonti has found a way of combining two cultures into one original crossover expression. In Ano Zero, Gismonti takes a song like melody as a melancholic ballad on an improvisatory style, where he brings sweet consonances crossing over with elements of jazz in its harmonic idiom, while still maintaining the ambience and sonorities of a new beginning.

This recording is motivated by an interest in the musical traditions of Brazil and Argentina. In appreciation of the guitar as the ideal vehicle to carry this message I transcribed, arranged and edit piano scores by Horacio Salgán, Carlos Guastavino and Egberto Gismonti. In light of this spirit, and as an homage to Chick Corea, I also transcribed and arrange a selection of his piano collection Children Songs.

Pablo Cohen,
Ithaca, New York
released November 8, 2022

Pablo Cohen plays @ “4:00 am”
World premier recording of classical arrangement and transcriptions of piano music by Chick Corea, Egberto Gismonti, Carlos Guastavino and Horacio Salgán. Including works by Isaías Savio, Dilermando Reis, Marlos Nobre and Radamés Gnattali.

Pablo Cohen - 2018 Gold Medal / Recording of the Year -Global Music Awards.

“Grand class and enlighted emotion...” These are the words that Les Cahiers de la Guitare used to describe the playing of Pablo Cohen upon his debut recital at the Salle Cortot in Paris . “Fluid and delicate shape” wrote Philadelphia Inquirer in reviewing his rendering of a performance with the Concerto Soloist Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia. His debut at the Ho-Am Hall for Performing Arts in Seoul was praised by Korea Times as “One of the foremost South-American guitarist”. He was recognized for the recording premier of Carlos Guastavino’s Jeromita Linares with Camerata Bariloche Chamber Orchestra of Argentina, “A cordial recommendation: outstandingly fine playing of a repertoire few of us know” (Gramophone.) His transcriptions of Chick Corea’s Children Songs, and his many transcriptions and arrangement of piano works by Carlos Guastavino and Horacio Salgán, along with his unveiling of solo and ensemble music by Latin American masters such as Radamés Gnattali and Astor Piazzolla, represent an exciting new direction for classical guitar today.

An endearing performer, Pablo Cohen has participated in solo, ensemble, and orchestral concerts in the United States, Europe, Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean. As a featured artist, he performed at the Salle Cortot in Paris, at the Ho-Am Hall for Performing Arts in Seoul, at Carnegie Hall in New York, Teatro Nacional in Panama, Teatro San Martin in Buenos Aires, at the Performing Arts Hall of Berkley College of Music in Boston and at many venues throughout the US. Festival appearances have included New York City International Guitar Festival, Guitar Foundation of America International Convention, Philadelphia’s Mozart on the Square, the Festival Casals in Puerto Rico, the Carrefour Mondial de la Guitare in Martinique, The City of Geneva International Festival, Tel-Aviv Guitar Festival, Festival Calcaño in Caracas, “Festival de Guitarra Clásica” in Buenos Aires and Musickfest in Betlehem PA. “In short, Pablo Cohen is an outstanding classical player...the kind of artist the festival would do well to find more often.” (The Morning Call, Allentown PA). Mr Cohen is featured periodically in National Public Radio and in TV for PBS (Public Broadcasting System.)

Pablo Cohen is an active chamber musician as well. In addition to the more traditional ensembles, he has participated in groups including duets with bandoneonist Daniel Binelli, marimba player Gordon Stout, soprano saxophonist Steve Mauk and jazz guitarist Steve Brown. Recent engagements include performances as featured soloist with Concerto Soloists Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, Ithaca
College Chamber Orchestra, Mansfield University Chamber Orchestra; a guest appearance at the 92nd street Y with the Young People’s Choir of NYC, performances for chamber music series with Ensemble X, the Cayuga Chamber Orchestra and with the Pro Musica Ensemble; he also featured two Latin American concerti with the Orchestra of the Finger Lakes at the Clemens Center, NY. Mr.Cohen recorded “Concierto Barroco” by Roberto Sierra with the Sinfonieta de Puerto Rico; and the CD “Cantan” with the Ithaca College Women Chorale, featuring the music of Dominican composer Francisco Nunez. 2012 marks the release of a new recording with the Cayuga Chamber Orchestra dedicated to the guitar music of Radamés Gnattali, including two guitar concerti, ensemble and solo guitar works. Pablo Cohen graduated from Temple University with a Doctor in Musical Arts degree. He has received numerous prizes and awards for his performances in national and international competitions. More recently he received the Music Teachers National Association Award for his outstanding teaching. Dr Cohen is the head of the classical guitar program at Ithaca College and an affiliated artist at Cornell University.

In 2018 Pablo obtained the 2018 Gold Medal / Recording of the Year -Global Music Awards. That year he was also a Finalist at the Independent Music awards in NYC.

“It was stunning to hear the guitar with the many different combination of instruments. It was equally stunning to know that Pablo Cohen is also a first rate guitarist.”

Soundboard (Journal of the Guitar Foundation of America)

“. . . . Cohen and Binelli brought the tango to life like a pair of renegade graffiti artists awaking a NewYork neighborhood to a bold burst of color with their rendition of Piazzolla's Milonga del angel and Bordel 19OO. . .”

Classical Guitar Magazine

“Exercise of Virtuosity. A new finding for same, the confirmation of talent for others, or an artist faithful to his latin-american roots, Pablo Cohen summarizes it all.” “Both artists . . . [Vicente Amigo and Pablo Cohen] have carved their name in the history of the Carrefour Mondial de la Guitare.”

France-Antilles (Fort de France)

“Argentine Guitarist Shows His Class...It is with remarkable speed that Pablo Cohen is establishing himself as a unique and valuable addition to the international community of top world classical guitarist.”

Daily Express (Port of Spain, Trinidad)

“Classical Guitarist Impresses...Unfortunately, we seldom hear these composers works played. Cohen’s program was proof of how much of a loss that is. Cohen’s technique, both fluid and dramatic, served him well in exposing these enormously appealing works . . .which Cohen lovingly rendered...played with great personality and flair.

Reading Times (Reading, PA)

“Pablo played this unusually heard repertoire very passionately and with precision...”

Guitarre & Laute (Germany)

“Cohen played with a mellow tone and strongly shaped melody lines. His work should have satisfied anyone who loves the classical guitar... one of the high points of the entire two weeks Mozart on the Square Festival...” Welcomat (Philadelphia)

Acknowledgments

To my dear family, especially to my wife Angela, my sons Simon and David for their support. Also to my mom, Nildinha and Joan Godwin for their love, and to my good friends Freddy Prochtnik, Marcelo Zappi, Steve Brown and Barbara Brown for always being there.

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