He plays strings by Albert Augustine, on “Erik,” a cedar top Ignacio Fleta e hijos guitar, No. Mattias’s teachers include Göran Söllscher. Mattias’s filmed live performance of Joaquín Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez, with conductor André de Ridder and the Malmö Academy Symphony Orchestra, was featured by the work’s publisher Schott Music in the essay “Berühmte Gitarren-Werke,” on significant works for the guitar. His performance was chosen for The Met’s Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History, where it complements the essay “The Spanish Guitar,” which spans the 14th to 21st Century. His recording of “Come, Heavy Sleep,” from Benjamin Britten’s Nocturnal after John Dowland, was made for The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Mattias is inspired by the human voice, and often plays music rooted in song. It is chosen Album of the Week by Classic FM (U.K.) and WQXR (New York), and for editorial playlists such as “Soft Instrumental” on Spotify. Invocación is produced by David Frost, and named Editor’s Choice by Gramophone. His full-length recording debut Invocación explores Spanish composer Francisco Tárrega, and introduced the notion in recent history that Tárrega was inspired by Chopin. Mattias Schulstad is a Swedish classical guitarist who has made recordings, performed as soloist with orchestra, and developed the guitar’s repertoire. “The playing throughout is refined, intelligent and highly musical the tone, though never sweet, is fulsome and appealing. By contrast, the original music of Pujol is rhythmic and dance-like. The arrangements are sparse and exposed, and allow the guitar to sing. Llobet made arrangements of Catalan traditionals, which show another facet of Tárrega’s cultural framework. The city was home for many years to Tárrega and Pujol, and it was the place of birth for Llobet. And he wrote pieces that weren’t called nocturnes, but that function like nocturnes.Īmong Tárrega’s pupils were Emilio Pujol (1886-1980) and Miguel Llobet (1878-1938) Barcelona served as common ground. Tárrega adopted several of Chopin's compositional formats, not only mazurkas, but preludes and waltzes, too. But what makes his Chopin transcriptions stand out are their effect on his original work.
Tárrega made transcriptions of works by Bach, Mendelssohn, Schumann and Wagner. So what was this young Spaniard doing writing mazurkas, a regional Polish dance popularized by Chopin? His steady use of guitars made by Antonio de Torres (1817-1892, Spanish) helped standardize the design and sound qualities of the instrument we know today and his pupils carried forth his ambitious ideas about its possibilities. I welcome any thoughts and inquiries at is recognized today as a founding composer for the modern classical guitar. It has now been rereleased by my own label with updated sound and new cover art. Produced by David Frost, Invocación has proven successful – chosen as Album of the Week by both Classic FM in London and WQXR in New York, and played on radio stations throughout the world. It is now almost a decade since I recorded Invocación, an album based on the idea that the Spanish composer Francisco Tárrega (1852-1909) was deeply influenced by the music of Frederic Chopin.