Raphaël Feuillâtre Announces his Second DG Album – Spanish Serenades
The young French guitarist presents masterpieces of the Spanish repertoire,
many of them recorded on the composers’ own instruments
Spanish Serenades features works by Albéniz, Granados, Llobet, Rodrigo and Tárrega,
and includes several new transcriptions by Feuillâtre himself
He performs one of Granados’s Danzas españolas with violinist María Dueñas and
Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez with the Verbier Festival Chamber Orchestra & Gábor Takács-Nagy
Spanish Serenades will be released as a digital album on 6 June 2025 –
listen to Llobet’s Lo fill del rei here
“A thrilling debut … [Feuillâtre’s] supple sensitivity underpins a formidable
yet remarkably unshowy expressive power”
BBC Music Magazine, on Visages baroques
When Raphaël Feuillâtre was given the opportunity to play guitars owned by three of Spain’s finest composers, he jumped at the chance. For his second Deutsche Grammophon album, Spanish Serenades, he has created a programme built around works by Albéniz, Llobet and Tárrega, adding others by their compatriots Granados and Rodrigo. A talented and prolific arranger, Feuillâtre plays five of his own inventive transcriptions of works for solo piano. These include Granados’s Andaluza, which he performs with violinist and fellow DG artist María Dueñas. Spanish Serenades also features the French guitarist’s first recordings with orchestra – he is joined by the Verbier Festival Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Gábor Takács-Nagy, in Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez.
Guitar aficionados can enjoy the complete album from 6 June 2025, when it is issued digitally. Feuillâtre’s interpretation of Llobet’s Lo fill del rei will be available to stream/download from 9 May, followed on 23 May by his transcription of Granados’s Epílogo.
Through the generosity of several different collectors, Feuillâtre was lent guitars owned by Albéniz, Llobet and Tárrega for this recording, and began planning a tracklist by selecting works by these three influential figures of the Spanish classical world.
Known as the “Sarasate of the guitar”, Francisco Tárrega was a composer, arranger and teacher as well as virtuoso performer. Feuillâtre captures his legacy in the colourful Recuerdos de la Alhambra and Capricho árabe, together with eight of his ingenious preludes for guitar.
Miguel Llobet, who studied with Tárrega, made history as the first classical guitarist to create an electric recording. As a composer, he is perhaps best-known for his harmonisations of Catalan folk songs, four of which feature on Spanish Serenades, as does his transcription of Danza triste. Melancólica from Granados’s Danzas españolas.
Although Tárrega’s friend and contemporary Isaac Albéniz never wrote for the guitar, he loved playing the instrument and often composed with its sound in mind. His piano compositions have inspired countless adaptations, with Feuillâtre here contributing his own transcriptions of Capricho catalán (España), Torre bermeja (12 Piezas características) and Asturias. Leyenda (Suite española No. 1), as well as performing Tárrega’s transcription of Granada. Serenata (it too from the Suite).
“Spanish Serenades is a collection of works that touched my heart as a young musician and sparked what has become a lifelong love for the guitar and its repertoire,” says Raphaël Feuillâtre. “I’m especially thrilled to have recorded several of these works on three remarkable historical guitars owned by some of the composers themselves! They bring a unique character and authenticity to the interpretation, and I’m delighted that listeners will get to experience their unique sound.”
Feuillâtre’s choice of music by Enrique Granados, another renowned pianist-composer, includes his transcription of the lyrical Epílogo from the Escenas románticas. He also teams up with Andalusian violinist María Dueñas in his transcription of Fritz Kreisler’s violin-piano version of Andaluza. Playera, the fifth of the 12 Danzas españolas. Dueñas brings passion and intensity to the work’s melancholy melodic line.
At the heart of the album is Rodrigo’s iconic Concierto de Aranjuez, perhaps the most beloved of all Spanish guitar masterpieces. Sensitive and carefully balanced accompaniment is provided to Feuillâtre by the Verbier Festival Chamber Orchestra and Takács-Nagy, whether in the lively outer movements, or the lamenting central Adagio.
Raphaël Feuillâtre will play works by Albéniz and more in Zagreb (13 May) and Paris (26 May), and performs the Concierto de Aranjuez in Clermont-Ferrand on 6 June. For full touring details, see here.
