Vuelta al mundo en 4 guitarras

In 2009, when EntreQuatre was celebrating it’s 25th anniversary, it recived one of it’s most importants recognitions by being nominated to Latin Grammy Awards with the pice “4 Asimetrías”, written by Orlando Jacinto García and performed by the quartet.

In May 2017 EntreQuatre performed in the prestigious Prague Spring 72 International Music Festival filling up the hole Dvořák’s concert room with more tan 1000 people and having an undeniable success.

In 1984 four Asturian guitarrists began working together as a group never suspecting that over the years they would become one of the most original and well established chamber ensembles in the field of contemporary music in Spain. In consequence, during this period, Entrequatre has inspired the creation of new works for four guitars, having premièred more than forty. Their autors are: Miguel del Aguila, Moisés Arnáiz, Imanol Bageneta, Jose Luis Barroso, Javier Blanco, Gustavo Becerra-Schmit, Alejandro Cardona, Enrico Chapela, Flores Chaviano, Fernando Colás, Carlos Cruz de Castro, Francisco Cuenca, María Escribano, Gabriel Fdez. Álvez, Orlando J. García, Tomás Garrido, Jose Ma García Laborda, Radamés Gnatalli, Agustín González Acilu, Rey Guerra, Fredrick Kaufman, Jose Manuel Lorenzo, Marisa Manchado, Jonatas Manzolli, Juan Méndez, Emiliano Pardo, Paquito D’Rivera, Leonardo Sánchez, Raúl do Valle.

Entrequatre has made tours of Europe, the United Estates, South America, South Africa and India. It is fitting to point out their presence at the following festivals: I Andrés Segovia In Memoriam, organised by the Sociedad General de Autores y Editores, X Rothemburg Guitar Festival (Germany), Aveiro Guitar Festival (Portugal), VI Salamanca Festival of Contemporary Music, XIII International Festival of Contemporary Music in Alicante, FIU Music Festival in Miami (1999), Santander International Festival and Donostia Music Fortnight.

In November 1989 they performed in the National Museum in Warsaw. In January 1992 they premièred Critalería Barroca by Carlos Cruz de Castro and ¿6×4? 24 by Marisa Manchado in the Reina Sofía National Museum and Art Centre in Madrid. In February 1995 they gave the first performance of Voyage, by María Escribano, in Brussels, and of Aquí lejos y Hace tiempo, by Leonardo Sánchez, in Paris. In January 1997 they oponed a guitar quartet cycle in the Juan March Foundation, with the premières of Sonata de Temple by García Laborda and Quartet no1 by Radamés Gnatalli. In December 1998 they opened the concert season of the Miami Guitar Society with a recital in which they gave the world première of Concierto para cuatro guitarras «A García Lorca in memoriam» by Gabriel Fernández Álvez. In October 1999 they performed 4 Asimetrías by Orlando J. García and Catalan Concertante by Fredrick Kaufman in Auditorio Príncipe Felipe in Oviedo. In November 1999 they made their second tour of the USA, including performances in towns such as Washington, UNO headquarters in New York, Chicago and Miami.

Their collaboration with other groups began in 1989, when together with the Príncipe de Asturias Choir, they gave the first performance of Flores Chaviano’s Son de Negros en Cuba, for choir, narrator, small percussion group and guitar quartet, based on a text by García Lorca, during a tour of Germany and Poland. In February 1994 they premièred, accompanied by the Principality of Asturias Symphony Orchestra (O.S.P.A), another composition by Flores Chaviano, Concierto para Cuatro Guitarras y Orquesta, commissioned by the Centro para la Difusión de la Música Contemporánea. With the same orchestra, in December 1997 they performed Concierto Ibérico for four guitars and orchestra by F. Moreno-Torroba, and recorded Concierto para cuatro guitarras by Rodrigo for NAXOS in 2000.

The Washington Post reviewer Joseph McLellan has said about them: “(…) EntreQuatre, a virtuoso guitar quartet that also opened the program with several instrumental works of Chaviano. These works, ranging in style from folk song imitations to avant-garde experiments using extended performance techniques, were played with panache and effortless technique”.