Rodrigo and Beethoven were very happy with the time they shared with their respective friends since both the concert and the symphony of this programme arose from conversations held in the heat of a good table. Eighty years have passed since the premiere at the Palau de la Música Catalana (1940), the most famous and most interpreted guitar concerto of all time. An completely rounded piece, not only by the ingenuity of Joaquín Rodrigo to ensure that a symphony orchestra does not cover the sound of the guitar in any of its three movements, but also by the imaginative way in which it allows us to perceive some of the senses of the Gardens of Aranjuez : the sound of the birds, the murmur of the water from the fountains and even the perfume of the flowers.

Beethoven referred to this work as “a small symphony”, not because it lacked interest for him but because of its shorter duration. He always spoke of it with great love because it is an extrovert, happy and humorous work that helped him forget the sadness of the difficult relationships with his nephew and his sister-in-law. It does not have slow movement and in the Allegretto scherzando we can hear a good example of that good humor through a rhythmic obstinato that makes reference to the invention that Johann Nepomuk Mälzel was developing and that would come to be called a 'metronome'.