Enrique Granados was one of the leading figures of the late-19th-century Spanish nationalist and impressionist school of musicians. The much-loved Danzas españolas is a collection of piano pieces that represents Granados’s refined blend of Romantic lyricism and Spanish folk imagery. This charming and charismatic journey through Spain is presented here in a colourful transcription for two guitars. Fabio Rizza’s 2024 arrangement of the evocative Capricho español completes the programme.

Enrique Granados’s Danzas españolas have long been highly popular as a collection of piano pieces, as well as in arrangements that range from full orchestra to guitar solo. The Azulejos Guitar Duo’s new guitar duo transcription of this collection was inspired by guitarist Miquel Llobet’s 1924 duo arrangements of two of Granados’s Danzas, and these Italian guitarists build on this example with the widened expressive and dynamic range offered by this chamber-music setting to create a superb new complete guitar duo version of this muchloved classic of the Spanish repertoire.

Between 2020 and 2023, Eugenio Della Chiara recorded three albums for Decca, and in 2024 released his first album on Naxos, which featured the guitar works of Gaspar Cassadó and Frederic Mompou (8579103). He also collaborates with actor Alessio Boni, violinist Piercarlo Sacco, pianist Alberto Chines, guitarist Pietro Locatto and tenors Juan Francisco Gatell and Mert Süngü. Della Chiara has been artistic director of the chamber music series MUN – Music Notes in Pesaro since 2005. In 2024 he was appointed full professor of guitar at the Conservatorio di Musica Lucio Campiani in Mantua.

A scholar of the De Sono Associazione per la Musica, Pietro Locatto has won several international competitions, including First Prize at the Gianni Bergamo Classic Music Award in Lugano. Awarded the ‘young promise’ Golden Guitar at the Convegno Internazionale di Chitarra in Milan, he has collaborated with the Filarmonica Arturo Toscanini in Parma and the Orchestra Sinfonica d’Este in Ferrara, and has performed in festivals across Italy, Europe, Australia and Mexico. In recent years, he has focused on recording projects that have been praised by critics in Italy and abroad, ranging from original early-20th-century Spanish repertoire to Bach transcriptions and works by Castelnuovo-Tedesco and Barrios.