GUITARE VS MANDOLINE

No, no and no – the mandolin is not a small guitar. A whiff of Italy on one side, a hint of Spain on the other. Each would enjoy its moment of glory, then fade into relative obscurity, until the rebirth of the guitar, which was propelled to star status thanks to the rise of pop music and the benefits of amplification.

To date, the mandolin has not shared this fate. Yet there are all sorts of mandolins: ‘country’, ‘banjoline’, ‘mandolinetto’, the Brazilian ‘bandolim’ and even the Irish mandolin, and each has its own appeal. But neither jazz, nor pop, nor R&B has managed to embrace this instrument, which lacks a ‘star’ on the scale of Jimi Hendrix to lift it out of obscurity. Yet it certainly deserves it!

For its part, the guitar also fell out of favour towards the end of the 19th century. This was a time when orchestration became more elaborate, with an increasing number of brass sections in compositions and, consequently, in orchestras. The intimate sound of the guitar, so well-suited to drawing rooms and chamber music, was no longer in vogue. But the ‘Electricity Fairy’ was about to make her appearance, and the guitar would once again become the popular instrument it had once been.

In this programme, we present the two most famous concertos for each of these instruments: Calace’s concerto for the mandolin and Rodrigo’s concerto for the guitar, featuring two exceptional soloists, Julien Martineau and Philippe Moratouglou.