Spanish composer Joaquín Rodrigo was in San Sebastian, Spain, in 1938 when guitarist Regino Sainz de la Maza suggested the idea of a guitar concerto to him. Several months later, in his studio in Paris, Rodrigo
was thinking about the concerto "when I heard a voice inside me singing the entire theme of the Adagio at one go, without hesitation. And immediately afterwards, without a break, the theme of the third movement. I realized quickly that the work was done." He hoped the Concierto would offer
"a suggestion of times past, the beautiful gardens of Aranjuez…. the fragrance of magnolias, the singing of birds and the gushing of fountains,” all the garden delights that a blind man such as himself could enjoy. He refers to the 300 acres of gardens at the Royal Palace of Aranjuez in Spain originally built in the last half of the 16th century.
The Concierto made Rodrigo famous almost overnight. And he became so revered in his native Spain that he was elevated to nobility in 1991 by King Juan Carlos I with the title of Marqués de los Jardines de Aranjuez (Marquis of the Gardens of Aranjuez). The Concierto de Aranjuez is today’s Midday Masterpiece.
