Canadian guitarist Adam Cicchillitti performs Ombres et lumières by Canadian composer and guitarist Patrick Roux (b.1962). This comes via Cicchillitti’s YouTube channel and recorded by Drew Henderson. You can find the sheet music for the duo or solo version at Les Productions d’Oz. Great performance by Cicchillitti with engaging momentum and a beautiful sound throughout. Here’s his write up via his YouTube description.
Patrick Roux is among the most prolific composers of music for classical guitar in Canadian history, boasting over 100 publications of original works for the instrument. Roux is a celebrated pedagogue teaching at the Conservatoire de Gatineau and University of Ottawa. I met Roux at the Domaine Forget Academy where he has been teaching every summer since the early 1990s, and have worked closely with the composer for several years. In 2017, Steve Cowan and myself commissioned Roux for a new piece for guitar duo. The resulting composition entitled Ombres et lumières (Shadows and lights) was published with les Productions d’Oz and premiered in Gatineau in September 2018. Knowing that Cowan and myself were both active soloists, Roux also created a solo version of the work, which is featured in this video.
Ombres et lumières was inspired by a painting of the same name, created by one of Roux’s closest friends, artist Mario Courchesne. The two movements of the work are starkly contrasted: The first is slow and sombre, described by the composer as “evoking human sorrow, immersing the listener in shadow and obscurity”, while the second is quick and relentless, eliciting a “journey on a sinuous, frantic and adventurous path towards the light.” The work is a dialogue, as motives are passed back and forth between both performers. The constant build from the introspective first movement to the motoric rhythms of the second culminates in frequently changing meters, modulations and musical devices reminiscent of progressive rock.
via Cicchillitti’s YouTube channel
This is inspirational. Thank you.