Five Hundred Years of Romance -- CD NotesSyd and Lisa met quite by accident at a Washington, D.C. chamber music party neither had planned to attend. The Entr’Acte by Jacques Ibert was the only flute and guitar music that Lisa brought with her that night, and Syd had never played with a guitarist before. So that first piece had its first reading at our first meeting. And that serendipitous encounter led to some three hundred duo concert performances and workshops in twenty countries in Europe, the Americas and Asia over the next dozen years.Ibert composed incidental music for a French production of Pedro Calderón's El médico de su honra in 1935. The Entr'acte of that music opens with a breathless whirling dance, inspired by flamenco guitar music; an apt metaphor for our career as a duo. We honor Ibert’s masterpiece as perhaps the single most influential composition leading to an extraordinary flowering of new music for this very old combination of instruments.Bizet composed in much larger forms, but this Minuet from the Arlesienne Suite is a masterpiece of duo writing within an orchestral work. Long a popular favorite, the Minuet is one of the most beautiful flute melodies of all, while the guitar aptly plays the role of the harp.For years before the Wikipedia era we were unable to find out anything about Jan Truhlar, the composer of the witty and delightful Sonatina here. We asked audiences on several continents and got no results, until a command performance for President Henk Chin-A-Sen of Suriname. Lisa told Syd, “Ask anyway. It’s part of the act.” As it turned out, the President’s son studied classical guitar in Holland, and we learned that Truhlar, born in 1928, was himself a guitarist whose oeuvre contains many works for guitar as soloist and with other instruments. Incidentally, President Chin-A-Sen was a fine jazz pianist who, sadly, was overthrown by a tone deaf ex-army sergeant not long after our performances there.The Romanza by the 18th century Spanish composer Fernando Sor suggests that the possibilities for tantalizing tenderness in flute and guitar music are boundless. Listen closely and see how easy it is to bring back romantic memories with this music.Nicolo Paganini (1782-1840) was the fiery violin virtuoso who some say had more women swoon over him than any other musician – until Elvis and the Beatles, of course. As a young man he composed many duos for his guitarist lover, and we imagine that the couple might have first played this brief Sonata late some Saturday morning after the night before. We liked the flash and exuberance of a youthful master who had no doubts about his incredible virtuosity, so we arranged this piece for flute and guitar instead of violin. Tim Walker (b. 1943) is an internationally acclaimed guitarist and teacher based in London. He gave us Flute Flight as a wedding present. This gem, composed as homage to Villa-Lobos, shows unabashed admiration for the Brazilian genius. The flute line lives up to the title of the work, and leaves us wanting to fly with more of Tim’s compositions. He and Lisa met when both were studying at Andres Segovia’s master classes in Spain.There are more compositions based on the Carnival of Venice theme than we can count. The variations composed by Paul Agricole Genin (1832-1903) are a showpiece for flutists, and could also be described as a test of any accompanist’s patience. Little is known about the composer besides his position as the principal flutist of the Theatre Italien, and a listing of 64 works which have faded into obscurity.Daniel Kelley (b. 1968) came up to us after a concert in 1983 and asked if we might look at a piece he composed as a young teenager. He gave us a copy in pencil, and we liked For Nina so much that it became a regular staple of our programs. We lost contact for many years, but recently learned that he is very active as a pianist, composer and arranger. He is also a member of the Los Angeles Opera Orchestra French Horn section and has recorded many Hollywood movie scores. He is the arranger for Last Resort Music Publishing. Like Syd, he also is an author with several published novels to his credit.Gerard Jaffe (1925-2001) was composer in residence at the University of the Incarnate Word and was well known in the San Antonio, Texas area, particularly for his songs. This charming, lively work was composed in 1982, and some passages from it make us imagine Brahms for flute and guitar.We like to think of the collaboration between John Dowland and Jan Jacob van Eyck as sixteenth century pops and seventeenth century jazz. Pops because Dowland’s Lachrimae Pavane (1596) was the most popular ballad of love lost at the turn of the century; seventeenth century jazz because Van Eyck, a blind Dutch recorder virtuoso, dictated an extraordinary set of improvisations on the theme. That’s how this work spans the centuries to combine the best of ancient pops and jazz. Do you think this piece sounds quite modern, as we do?During his lifetime, Heitor Villa Lobos (1887-1959) was the most significant and best known Latin American composer of that era. He was inspired by Bach, and composed a series of nine Bachianas Brasileras between 1930 and 1945. The Aria from the Bachianas Brasileras No. 5 was originally composed for soprano and at least eight cellos, and the song became an international hit. Andres Segovia persuaded the composer to create a guitar and voice version for him and a very special friend. The haunting beauty of this wordless Aria compelled us to arrange this version for our performances. About the Duo Lisa Hurlong and Syd Goldsmith performed together and shared their music on every continent…except Antarctica. The duo was launched with tours of Europe from 1978-1980. Throughout the 1980s Lisa and Syd played a significant role in the revival of this intimate combination of flute and guitar, as one of the most widely performed duos of the era. They inspired several new works, including For Nina and Flute Flight, which appear in this album. This CD was produced from a model 700 dbx digital recording in the Chapel of Claremont College in 1984. The extraordinary live performance sound quality of this vintage recording is rarely matched even today. Cover art was created by Jessica Goldsmith.Lisa Hurlong is one of the very few women classical guitarists on the international concert stage. Originally from the arts colony of Arden, Delaware, Lisa left junior high school to study with Andrés Segovia at the Accademia Chigiana in Siena, Italy. She remained his scholarship student for the next five seasons and later studied at the Juillard School with Oscar Ghiglia and Suzanne Bloch, before making the leap from junior high school to a degree in psychology magna cum laude from the University of Maryland. Lisa has toured extensively in the United States, Europe, Central and South America and the Far East, both as soloist and as a chamber musician performing with members of the Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society and Kao Yu mei, Asia's finest Pipa player, among others. Among her honors was the invitation to give the opening concert in honor of Segovia's 100th birthday in his home town of Linares, Spain. Lisa currently organizes master classes in flamenco and classical guitar in Granada, Spain. When not teaching or performing, Lisa is an equestrian and arts consultant. Combining her love of music and horses, her solo CD, Un Concerto Para Mi Caballo, is played at Spanish horse shows worldwide. Fluent in both Chinese and Spanish, she often serves as an international link to the guitar world and to the development of the equestrian arts in China. She has lived primarily in Granada since 1988, where her home has become an international center for the guitar, its players and makers.Syd Goldsmith After studying with Julius Baker and free-lancing in New York, Syd Goldsmith took off with flute in hand to make a career in the Foreign Service. From his first assignment in Hong Kong during the Cultural Revolution, Syd went on to learn Mandarin, Cantonese and Taiwanese as well as French and Spanish. His diplomatic assignments were always interspersed with chamber music and solo performances worldwide. Much of this international adventure was as the flutist of our duo. He was also the founder of two East-West Chamber Ensembles in Taiwan.Syd has enjoyed multiple careers, following his passion for music through his stints as a diplomat, management consultant in greater China, entrepreneur, author and university professor in Taiwan. Syd sees his life as a series of survivals. As with any life, wonderful stories can emerge from the magic mix of experience and imagination. His first novel, “Jade Phoenix,” was a finalist in two international competitions. The second novel, “Two Musicians and the Wife Who Isn’t,” is very much about the aspirations and passions of its fictitious musicians.Syd’s next CD, just completed, is a selection of late 20th century works for flute alone. It is scheduled for release in late 2013. Syd lives in Taipei, Taiwan with his wife Hsiu-chen and their two children.