Concierto de Aranjuez

Rodrigo wrote the Concierto de Aranjuez in Paris in 1939, blind since the age of three and working in Braille, from which a copyist transferred the score. He returned to Spain that year, and the premiere was given in Barcelona on 9 November 1940 by Regino Sainz de la Maza. The title points to the gardens of the royal palace at Aranjuez rather than to any programme. The slow movement, with its cor anglais melody over the guitar's arpeggios, has been arranged and quoted so widely that it now circulates independently of the concerto.