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[melonkali]

27. Such a beautiful thread -- thanks to all

My offering will be the 2nd Movement (the Adagio) from Rodrigo's Concierto de Aranjuez for guitar and orchestra --

This music caused me to weep:
a) The first time I ever heard it
b) When I learned the story behind its composition
c) When I read the Youtube comment board under an earlier uploaded video (same performance but time constraints forced the video to cut off at the critical ending of the Adagio and continue on Part 3) -- people from so many different, often conflicting, cultures sharing the deep universal human sorrow and beauty this piece evokes

SPOILER FOR PURISTS: THE INSPIRATION BEHIND THE COMPOSITION: Rodrigo, blind since age 3, and a deeply religious man, did not speak about this Adagio for years. Many speculated it might have been inspired by the Guernica tragedy in the Spanish Civil War. Rodrigo's beloved wife Victoria finally revealed that Rodrigo wrote this Adagio hurriedly, in 1939, in Paris, after their eagerly awaited first child was stillborn, and the doctors told Rodrigo that Victoria's life was still in danger. Rodrigo offered no further interpretation except for later revealing to friend and classical guitarist Pepe Romero that the tiny harmonics at the end of the movement are his child's soul ascending to heaven.

Rodrigo's Concierto de Aranguez, 2nd Movement, Guitarist Paco de Lucia: