Boulder Chamber Orchestra presents word premiere concerto for guitar

By Peter Alexander Dec. 17 at 2:20 p.m.

The Boulder Chamber Orchestra (BCO) will present their annual Holiday “Gift of Music” featuring guitarist Nicolò Spera Saturday (7:30 p.m. Dec. 21) at the Boulder Adventist Church.

Bahman Saless, artistic director of the BCO, will share conducting duties with Nadia Artman and Giacomo Susani. Spera will play the world premier of Susani’s Concerto for 10-string guitar and orchestra, titled Lungo il Po (Along the Po river), conducted by the composer.

The orchestra’s concertmaster, Annamaria Karacson, will be the featured soloist for the “Méditation” from Thaïs by Jules Massanet, with Saless conducting. He will also lead the orchestra in the program’s closing work, Dvořák’s Czech Suite. Nadia Artman will conduct the opening work on the program, the Prélude from Bizet’s Carmen.

Susani has an active career as a guitar soloist in Europe, and recently presented his Carnegie Hall debut in New York. He taught guitar at the Junior Department of the Royal Academy of Music in London 2019–23, and is currently artistic director of the Homenaje International Guitar Festival in Padua, Italy, and co-artistic director and teacher of the Residenze Erranti, an initiative that supports young artists by providing scholarships for masterclasses, workshops and other events in Milan and Padua.

Susani has recorded four albums on the Stradivarius label. Performances this year included appearances in the UK, at the Paganini Guitar Festival and the Conservatorio G. Puccini in Gallarate, Italy. His Guitar Concerto Lungo di Po is one of several works he has written for guitar.

Lungo il Po is based on a book of the same title by Federica Pocaterra. It was commissioned by Spera, to whom it is dedicated. Susani believes that it is the first concerto written for the unusual 10-string guitar and orchestra. The music includes quoted fragments of the Lamento di Arianna by Claudio Monteverdi, one of the most famous laments of the early Baroque period. 

Dvořák wrote the Czech Suite in 1879 for the German publisher Fritz Simrock, who was the principal publisher for both Dvořák and Brahms. It comprises five movements, three of which are Czech folk dances: a polka, a soudedska—a type of slower dance in triple time—and a furiant—a fast and fiery dance that Dvořák used in several of his works.

A member of the CU College of Music faculty, Spera is known for playing both the six-string and 10-string guitars, as well as the Renaissance theorbo, a member of the lute family. He holds degrees from the Conservatory of Bolzano, Italy, and the Accademia Musical Chigiana in Siena, Italy, as well as as an artist diploma from the University of Denver and a doctorate from CU, Boulder. In addition to his teaching duties at CU, Spera appears frequently as a solo performer, both locally and internationally.

A native of Moscow, Russia, Artman has appeared as a guest conductor of the BCO in past seasons, and manages Artman Productions in Boulder.

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“The Gift of Music”
Boulder Chamber Orchestra, Bahman Saless, conductor
With Nicolò Spera, guitar, and Annamaria Karacson, violin
Guest conductors Nadia Artman and Giacomo Susani

• Bizet: Prélude to Carmen
• Giacomo Susani: Concerto for 10-string guitar and orchestra, Lungo il Po (Along the Po river)
• Jules Massanet: “Méditation” from Thaïs
• Dvořák: Czech Suite, op. 39

7:30 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 21
Boulder Adventist Church, 345 Mapleton Ave., Boulder

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