Los Romeros, “The Royal Family of the Guitar” - Decca announces the release of their complete mercury masters recordings
Decca Classics is proud to announce the release of the complete Mercury recordings of the ‘Royal Family of the Guitar’ — LOS ROMEROS — on November 3, 2023.
Celedonio Romero and his sons Celin, Pepe and Angel invented the guitar quartet a few years after immigrating to the United States from their native Spain. Steeped in both Baroque and Flamenco guitar traditions, the family performed their arrangements of old masterpieces, Spanish folk music and new music commissioned by the quartet. Their first recordings as a quartet were on Mercury Living Presence.
Along with Los Romeros' complete Mercury recordings, newly remastered in high-definition 192-24 digital clarity, this limited-edition box set includes the first recordings by Celedonio, Celin and Pepe Romero, made for Contemporary Records in 1960. These albums have also been newly HD remastered for this release.
This deluxe box set includes liner notes by Romeros biographer Walter Aaron Clark and a sessionography by producer and remastering engineer Thomas Fine. High-quality scans of original LP cover art decorate the disc jackets. Each album is reissued in its original LP sequence. Also included in the lavishly illustrated booklet are original LP jacket notes.
Los Romeros recorded for Mercury Living Presence from 1962 through 1967. In that time, the group evolved and expanded their music, both in performance and on records. Pepe Romero's mastery of Flamenco music reached its apex on The World of Flamenco album. Nothing short of a concept album of performance art, Pepe in December 1966 gathered his father and brothers plus a Jaleo group of dancers, percussionists and singers at the legendary United Recording Studios in Hollywood. The recording successfully captured the sounds and atmosphere of a Flamenco gathering, somewhat akin to a live jazz jam session.
The same musicians who could transport the listener to Flamenco Spain expertly played the music of Spanish royal courts in the Baroque period. The family, particularly Celedonio and Angel, were adept at arranging chamber music not written for guitar, and making it the quartet's own. And, the quartet commissioned music, culminating in the 1967 recording of two Rodrigo concertos, with the San Antonio Symphony under the baton of Victor Alessandro. At those same sessions, the group recorded an album of Vivaldi concertos.
In 1960, as a teenager, Pepe Romero performed Flamenco music in front of a microphone for the first time, in Contemporary Records' studio. His album, Flamenco Fenómeno!, is remastered in HD for the first time in this box set, along with Celedonio and Celin's Contemporary album, Spanish Guitar Music.
The morning after the quartet's triumphant debut at Carnegie Hall, their manager loaded them into a limousine and took them to Mercury Records' New York offices. Wilma Cozart Fine, then a Mercury VP and head of classical music, recalled meeting Los Romeros in an interview she gave to International Classical Record Collector magazine: “The Romeros simply appeared in our offices on Fifth Avenue one day. I was in my office and the receptionist rang to tell me ‘the greatest guitarists in the world’ were outside. ‘How many?’ I asked. ‘A whole bunch!’ she replied. I called [Mercury Music Director] Harold [Lawrence] and asked him to go and see them. He met with them for a while, then came back and told me it was the Romeros, the father and three sons, with their mother, girlfriends, and others. They sat down and played, and I signed them.”
Six decades after being set to tape, these performances continue to captivate and inspire. In his indepth liner notes, Clark aptly characterises them: "Their exceptional virtuosity, diverse repertoire, and stage presence earned them accolades from audiences and critics alike." In acknowledgment of their contributions to music, Los Romeros were honored with the Recording Academy President's Merit Award at the 2007 GRAMMY® Awards.
REPERTOIRE
CD 1
The Royal Family of the Spanish Guitar
LOS ROMEROS
CD 2
Guitar Music from the Courts of Spain
CELEDONIO ROMERO
CD 3
Flamenco
PEPE ROMERO
CD 4
Baroque Concertos and Solo Works
LOS ROMEROS
CD 5
An Evening of Flamenco Music
LOS ROMEROS
CD 6
World of Flamenco
LOS ROMEROS, WITH JALEO
CD 7
Vivaldi Guitar Concertos
LOS ROMEROS
SAN ANTONIO SYMPHONY / VICTOR ALESSANDRO
CD 8
Rodrigo
Concierto andaluz
Concierto de Aranjuez
LOS ROMEROS
SAN ANTONIO SYMPHONY / VICTOR ALESSANDRO
BONUS
Los Romeros on Contemporary Records
CD 9
Flamenco Fenómeno!
PEPE ROMERO
CD 10
Spanish Guitar Music
CELEDONIO ROMERO · CELIN ROMERO
For all enquiries: Alice Faure, [email protected]
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