Homenaje a Alirio Díaz

I welcome with great enthusiasm the publication of this collection of music by Venezuelan guitarist-composers. I am certain that my father would also have been happy, in that it shows the productiveness and continuity of the Venezuelan school of composition, ever careful as to its own individuality while adhering to the canons of so-called “cultured” music.

My thanks go to Maestro Piero Bonaguri who, with devotion and gratitude towards one of his teachers (whose birth centenary occurs in 2023), has completed this important work aimed at spreading the new Venezuelan musical heritage, and I also thank all the composers who, with great commitment, have wished to honour their fellow citizen: Alirio. (Senio Diaz)

I am very happy with the release of this anthology of pieces written in homage to the great guitarist Alirio Díaz in the contemporary music series that I manage. For many years I attended his summer courses, in Italy and abroad, and meeting Maestro Díaz, who over time also honoured me with his friendship, was fundamental for my education.

I was also particularly pleased and honoured when he invited me to play with him in Venezuela, and then to have played, in the church of the Artists in Rome, on the sad occasion of his funeral.

The pieces in this volume, which by happy coincidence comes out near the hundredth anniversary of the birth of the great guitarist, were written by composers who are also guitarists and demonstrate that impressive integration in the repertoire of the “cultivated” guitar of themes and colours of Venezuelan folk music, which is one of the fundamental artistic contributions of Alirio Díaz, who wrote that folk music is “as important and cultivated as cultivated music itself”. (Piero Bonaguri)