Concierto del Sur for guitar and orchestra

Andrés Segovia waited some twenty years for this concerto: Ponce promised it in the 1920s and delivered only in 1941, after repeated prompting in their long correspondence. Segovia played the premiere in Montevideo on 4 October 1941 with the composer conducting. Ponce, a Mexican who had studied with Dukas in Paris, wrote a piece whose title points south to Andalusia rather than to his own country, its outer movements evoking Spanish dance rhythms and its slow movement a nocturne. It remains, with Rodrigo's Aranjuez, a foundation of the guitar concerto repertoire.