Sor | Sérénade op. 37 | Patrik Kleemola on Louis Panormo (1838)

Fernando Sor: Sérénade op. 37
(dedicated to Mademoiselle S. Talbot)
Andante cantabile 00:00
Andantino 02:03
Allegretto 05:27
Allegretto 09:23

“Sor, with his guitar, did wonders: we listened to him with care, with pleasure! Trumpet, drum, harp, harmonic notes, melodious and original song, there is everything in Mr. Sor's guitar. Composer, instrumentalist, you do not know which of the two charms you more.”
La Pandore (Paris), 9th of May 1828

When researching and studying Sor's guitar music, one notices that the works can be divided in two categories: works written for his students or guitar amateurs in general and then much more demanding works that Sor himself played in concerts. This Sérénade op. 37 clearly belongs to the latter category. It's a work almost completely neglected by guitarists and to my knowledge only recorded in “complete works by Sor” series. I have to admit that also for myself it has been perhaps the most cryptic work by this Catalan composer. It was published soon after Sor became his own publisher in 1828, so evidently it has had his complete approval (unlike some earlier works published by Meissonnier without Sor's knowledge).

The title Sérénade doesn't refer here to a guitarist serenading under the window of a beloved one but to a multiple-movement musical form somewhere between a suite and a symphony, usually light and romantic in nature. Serenades were often associated with music performed outdoors with predominance of wind instruments, and often as a homage to a person or an event like a wedding.

In Sor's Sérénade, the above mentioned “outdoor music” qualities are present: from the pastoral music of the first movement to the closing march movement (which brings to mind a marching band) and to the bugle-calls of the trumpet in the very end. This particular work is the only time Sor uses a serenade form in his music and this music, I think, seems to require a particular approach. It feels to me that it's music for wind ensemble performed on the guitar. So this inspired me how to hold the tempo in the performance and not to be too capricious when it comes to rubato... something guitarists are very cabable of!

So this is how I found my way to this piece which doesn't feel anymore like a cryptic one, but a fantastic concert piece by the inimitable Fernando Sor...

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Fernando Sor (1778-1839)
Sérénade op. 37
Patrik Kleemola, guitar

Guitar: Louis Panormo (1838)
Microphones: Stereo pair of DPA 4011a Cardioid microphones
Audio interface: Prism Sound Atlas
Videocameras: Canon EOS 200D
Location: Rymättylän kirkko

Produced by Patrik Kleemola

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