The Melon Dúo brings together the Costa Rican guitarist Adrián Montero and the Israeli mandolinist Dor Gidon. For our Siccas Media programme they recorded the Sonatina Op. 205 by Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco — a work written for flute and guitar, here in Gidon's own arrangement for mandolin and guitar. The recording was made in Rhode Island.
About the Sonatina Op. 205
Castelnuovo-Tedesco wrote the Sonatina in the summer of 1965 at the request of the duo formed by the flautist Werner Tripp and the guitarist Konrad Ragossnig, to whom it is dedicated. It was published in Paris in 1969 and has three movements: Allegretto grazioso, Tempo di Siciliana and Scherzo-Rondo.
The piece belongs to the late phase of a composer who, after meeting Andrés Segovia in 1932, wrote close to a hundred works involving the guitar. By 1965 he knew exactly how to balance the instrument against a melody partner: the guitar is never reduced to accompaniment, and the writing keeps both voices in genuine dialogue. Our portrait of the composer and our guide to his guitar works cover the wider output.
Mandolin instead of flute
Replacing the flute with a mandolin changes the piece more than it might appear. A flute sustains; a mandolin, like the guitar, is plucked and decays. What the arrangement loses in long singing lines it gains in unity of attack — two plucked instruments breathing together, with tremolo standing in where the flute would simply hold a note.
The pairing has a long history in Italy, where mandolin and guitar were partners in domestic music-making for generations before either became a concert instrument. For an Italian-born composer like Castelnuovo-Tedesco, the sound world is anything but foreign.
The performers
Adrián Montero is a Costa Rican guitarist currently pursuing a doctorate at the University of South Carolina with Mak Grgić. He has won more than fifteen prizes across Europe and the Americas, among them first place at the Connecticut Guitar Festival in 2024, and is co-director of Costa Rica's national guitar festival and competition. He is a committed advocate of new music, with a particular focus on contemporary Costa Rican and Ibero-American composers.
Dor Gidon is an Israeli mandolinist, conductor and pianist, and a prizewinner of the international mandolin competition in Modena. The arrangement heard here is his own.
Watch the Performance
For more of this composer's music, see our article on Prelude and Fugue No. 14 played by the AEON Guitar Duo, and browse our overview of famous classical guitar pieces.
