TY Zhang – ’Nothing could be done about it’ by Castelnuovo-Tedesco

== Tengyue ’TY’ Zhang plays ’No hubo remedio’ (’Nothing could be done about it’) from ’24 Caprichos De Goya’ by Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco (1895-1968). Goya presents a picture of a woman sentenced by the Inquisition to be executed, flanked by stern figures of authority and the hideous faces of the mob. The composer deals with this grim topic by a set of variations in Passacaglia form on the theme of the Dies irae (Day of Wrath). The Passacaglia provides a bass melody around which seven variations are fashioned, each variation having its own distinct character. Variation 1, for example, has the theme in the treble, Variation 2 is molto tranquillo, while Variation 4 is a virtuosic study. The ending, Variation 7, combines ‘sustained and grandiose’ loud chords with brilliant bursts of semiquavers in a final celebration of the Dies irae mood. TY Zhang is the world’s most prestigious guitar competition award winner – Guitar Foundation of American (GFA) International Concert Artist Competition (ICAC) 2017. Same year, he won the first prize on Alexander Frauchi Competition. Performed live on November 9th, 2018 on ’Two evenings in November’ Festival. Gnessins’ Academy of Music, Moscow, Russia. Video © 2018 by Guitar Magazine. Cameras: Konstantin Neklyudov, Dmitry Smirnoff