"Italian-born Raffaele Bellafronte has become an important name in the world of contemporary music. A visit to his website reveals his impressive credentials including many world premieres written for a variety of instruments at significant venues around the world. Rhapsodia Metropolitana is a relatively substantial one-movement work of approximately nine minutes in length. The opening is quite stark and desolate but retains romantic overtones; this is short-lived however and with the arrival of a new, quicker section, announced by an 'ominous' bass which is everpresent over the next 20-or-so bars, things soon begin to heat up with the music getting ever more complex and decidedly more rhythmical and aggressive. A calmer 'interlude' in waltz-style, echoing Nikita Koshkin's renowned homage to Poe, then provides a lengthy lyrical chapter which itself blends into an agitated section quickly followed by the first of two aggressive segments in this piece involving strummed chords and percussion. The work carries on in this fashion with alternate lyrical and violent material in close proximity. Rhapsodia Metropolitana could, in the right hands and with enough exposure, become a 'standard' of modern contemporary guitar solos. It never loses interest throughout its duration and for the very advanced player seeking new, modern material, this is definitely worth a try. The score is very well fingered and presented [...]. Steve Marsh (Classical Guitar Magazine)
