El Bohemio
Thibaut Garcia- Un sueño en la Floresta
- Aire de Zamba
- Mazurka appassionata
- Chopin: Prélude Op.28 No.20 arr. Agustín Barrios
- Una Limosna por El amor de dios
- Maxixe
- Danza Paraguaya No.1
- Vidalita – with poem “El Bohemio” read by Orlando Rojas
- Beethoven: Sonata quasi una fantasia No.14 Op.27 No.2 “Moonlight”: I. Adagio sostenuto arr. Agustín Barrios (A minor)
- Las Abejas
- Julia Florida
- Villancico de Navidad
- Vals Op.8 No.3
- Vals Op.8 No.4
- Confesión
- Choro da saudade
- “Profesión de fé” (by Orlando Rojas, recitation only, without Thibaut)
- Preludio en Do menor
- Schumann: Träumerei Op.15 No.7 arr. Agustín Barrios
- La Catedral, I. Preludio (from the 2018 recording Bach Inspirations) (bonus tracks)
- La Catedral, II. Andante religioso (from the 2018 recording Bach Inspirations) (bonus tracks)
- La Catedral, III. Allegro Solemne (from the 2018 recording Bach Inspirations) (bonus tracks)
- Caazapá: Aire Popular Paraguayo (an archive from Barrios Odeon’s recordings) (bonus tracks)
Thibaut Garcia pays tribute with El Bohemio to the Paraguayan guitar virtuoso and composer Agustín Barrios (1885-1944). Among his most famous compositions for his instrument – he wrote some 300 – is the triptych La Catedral, which featured on Garcia’s second Erato album, Bach Inspirations. On its release in 2018, Gramophone praised the Toulouse-born guitarist’s “flowing, pellucid interpretations” with “a compelling tension between the rippling enunciation of lighter paragraphs and the precipitous propulsion of more dramatic passages”.
Barrios, as Thibaut Garcia explains, is “an essential composer in the guitarist’s repertoire, whose music can be described as a skilful mix of South American popular music and the Romanticism of Chopin and Schumann – composers he idolised.” El Bohemio duly complements 16 varied pieces by Barrios himself with three of his transcriptions of famous music originally written for the piano: by Chopin (Prélude op 28 No 20), Schumann (Träumerei from Kinderszenen) and Beethoven (the opening movement of the ‘Moonlight’ Sonata).
In addition to Barrios’s music, the album includes readings (by the Paraguayan musician and poet Orlando Rojas) of two of his poems: ‘Bohemio’ and ‘Profesión de fé’ (Profession of faith). In the first, which lends the album its name, Barrios portrays himself as a wandering troubadour. The second evokes the indigenous people of Paraquay, the Guarani, to whom Barrios paid tribute by performing in tribal costume and adopting the name Nitsuga Mangoré: Nitsuga is Agustin written in reverse, while Mangoré was the name of a Guarani chieftain. (The Guarani language is still widely spoken in Paraguay.)
“Barrios’s music is inspired by nature, by the flora and fauna of the jungles of Paraguay,” says Thibaut Garcia. “He is a unique composer who represents the very soul of the guitar, and I want to share his work with you all today.”