La Catedral's composer, Pio Agustín Barrios, was the first South American guitar performer of international stature and, although largely self-trained as composer, the author of guitar music of outstanding worth. He is credited as the first guitarist to record music by Johann Sebastian Bach.

His name is given in a hybrid version of his real name and a stage name he adopted in the 1930s, which was Nitsuga Mangoré. The surname was the name of a legendary chief of the Guaraní tribe; Nitsuga was Agustín spelled backward. He even appeared on concert platforms wearing a Guaraní headdress and announcing himself as "Chief Nitsuga Mangoré, the Paganini of the guitar from the jungles of Paraguay."

He was actually from San Juan Bautista de las Misiones, Paraguay -- certainly a rural town but not a jungle. When he was 25, he left La Paz for a week-long tour of Argentina, but had such success that he stayed away for 14 years. He traveled in Brazil, Chile, and Uruguay, stopping for a while in that country for lessons with Antonio Gimenez Manjón.

It was while he was in Uruguay that he was inspired by the Cathedral of San José in the capitol city of Montevideo to write this work, whose title means "The Cathedral."

La Catedral is one of the most colorful and difficult works in the guitar repertoire. It originally had two movements, and is often performed in that form.

The original opening movement, Andante Religioso, represents the reverent mood that struck the composer when he entered the cathedral and heard music of Bach being played on its organ. The writing for the guitar is remarkable in imitating the sound of that music.

The original second movement is marked Allegro Solemne. It represents the impression of leaving the Cathedral and returning to the bustle of the street outside the building.

In 1938, Barrios added an opening movement, "Prelude (Saudade)." The Portuguese word in the subtitle means something like "nostalgic recollection" and this movement touchingly views the 1914 version of the work as a souvenir in a musical memory book.

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Ana Vidovic, guitar
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