Classical guitarist Sharon Isbin had Grammy nomination, hit record with Rodrigo music

Many music lovers, whether naturally inclined to classical music or not, would agree with Sharon Isbin’s assessment of Spanish composer Joaquin Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez.

“It’s a work tinged with cosmic greatness,” said Isbin, a world-renowned classical guitarist.

That observation is particularly true of the concerto’s slow, haunting second movement, as the guitar dominates with its poignantly reiterated and expressive central theme.

Most people have heard it, whether they know that it is the second movement of Concierto de Aranjuez they’re listening to or not. They’ve heard it in numerous popular replications. They’ve heard it at key emotional moments in movies or on a television show. They’ve even heard a snippet or two in television commercials — lots of commercials, in fact.

“It’s certainly one of the most beautiful works for an instrument and orchestra,” Isbin said.

If it is a familiar work no matter how we might recognize it, Isbin is more intimately acquainted with the concerto than most. She has played the piece, she estimated, “hundreds of times.” She has also made three recordings