Maurice Ohana

Estelas

Estelas ('Memorial Stones') was premiered in New York on March 16, 1977 by Uruguayan guitarist Abel Carlevaro who subsequently performed the piece in France and Colombia. The history of this little-know composition ( one of Maurice Ohana' s few pieces for six-string guitar) is definitely worth investigating.

lt all started in 1948 when Ohana and Carlevaro first met and became Jriends. The composer began sketches for a guitar concerto that would result in Tres Graficos (1957) for guitar and orchestra. Yet, by 1951, Carlevaro was back in his native Uruguay and the two Jriends would not meet again until 1974 in Paris.

Estrelas is the result of this reunion or, to be more precise, of an all-night musical party with Ohana improvising at the piano and Carlevaro playing guitar. The latter went home at the crack of dawn, entrusted with the task of writing a clean copy of the composer's notes.

And so he did. After creating Estrelas in concert, he included it in his staple repertoire and informed Ohana of the extremely positive reception of the work. Their ensuing correspondence reveals how difficult it was for Ohana to retrieve his original manuscript. It was not until 1980 that Carlevaro was able to fly to Paris and restore it to the composer.

In the meantime, Maurice Ohana had decided to focus exclusively on the ten-string guitar. He then re-used part of the Estrelas material to compose a larger work: Cadran lunaire (Lunar Dial) was completed in 1981.

Nevertheless, this 'forgotten' first sketch definitely bears the composer's distinctive touch. An exciting discovery, these seven miniatures testify to Ohana's immense talent and lifelong attachment to the guitar.

This revised edition, including fingerings and suggested tempi, is based on the final version of Cadran Lunaire.