Milos - The Guitar
Miloš Karadaglic
DG 477 9693

Release date April 2011

Guitarist Milos Karadaglic is DG’s latest star signing, and his debut album The Guitar has gone straight to the top of the classical chart. Born in Montenegro he fell in love with guitar at the age of eight, gave his first public performance at nine and won his first national competition at the tender age of eleven. It was his decision to apply to the Royal Academy of Music in London aged 16 (just as NATO bombing had ceased in his home country) that has helped propel him into the wider public eye. The disc brings together Mediterranean music from Karadaglic’s youth that he says ‘reflects my character. It tells the listener who I am’. He describes Montenegro as being at a cultural crossroads ‘which is why the music I grew up with is so interesting and diverse’ and cites John Williams and Julian Bream as his main influences. Works by Albéniz and Tarrega make up the first half of the disc. Although many will be familiar, for example the opening Albéniz’s Asturias followed by Tárrega’s Recuerdos de la Alhambra, what is striking is the variety of colour and emotion that make up each piece. He extracts a host of different timbres from the instrument and combines this with an incredibly precise technique. Some of the works were originally piano pieces; not so Tárrega’s miniature Adelita that is performed with an uncommon delicacy - I felt as if I was hanging on to every note. Domeniconi’s Koyunbaba follows this and it provides a welcome aural shift to the sounds of Turkey. It’s a great work and as Karadaglic explains ‘Whenever I play it, it’s different, like the sea itself, sometimes a storm…’ The rest of the programme takes the listener via Greece, and back to Spain to finish what is a delightful debut CD.

Reviewed by Dawn Gibson