WITH GUITAR, 'IN THE MOMENT' ELIOT FISK BRINGS STRINGS TO DISNEY HALL.

Byline: Fred Shuster Music Writer

Joaquin Rodrigo's ``Concierto de Aranjuez'' became one of classical music's most popular pieces almost as soon as it premiered 65 years ago.

Its second movement was adapted by Miles Davis for his ``Sketches of Spain'' album in 1960, becoming a jazz standard, and the dance-inspired concerto's themes were used in TV commercials, in movie soundtracks and as a pillar of the classical guitar repertoire. That's the context in which the outstanding guitarist Eliot Fisk will perform ``Concierto de Aranjuez'' with the Los Angeles Philharmonic this weekend at Disney Hall.

``The fact that the concerto has been embraced so widely in so many places does not diminish its power or its grace,'' Fisk said. ``It's a beautiful, fully engrossing piece of music that's satisfying to perform.''

Fisk has long embraced musical challenges. A creative innovator linked to the great romantic tradition of the past, the guitarist has performed in recital, as a soloist with major orchestras and in a wide variety of chamber music combinations in the great concert halls of the world.

``In the last decade, everyone was trying as hard as they could to cross over into jazz, into pop, into so many areas,'' said Fisk, the last direct pupil of Spanish guitar legend Andres Segovia and a professor at the University of Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria, and the New England Conservatory of Music.

``I have no problem with good music meeting an audience halfway. I want to expand the number of listeners. I don't believe in snob appeal. Music appreciation should have nothing to do with economic status.''

Fisk has also expanded the repertoire for guitar through groundbreaking transcriptions of works by Bach, Scarlatti, Haydn, Mozart, Paganini and others, as well as through commissions from composers as varied as Luciano Berio, Leonardo Balada, Robert Beaser and Kurt Schwertsik.

``Being spontaneous and in the moment is the true sign of a virtuoso,'' said Fisk, who was born in 1958 and grew up in what he calls a ``Quaker cocoon'' inside a Philadelphia suburb. ``Being able to bring feeling to a live performance is what you practice for - not to play everything perfectly and without emotion, like a machine.''

Fisk's three local appearances this weekend with the L.A. Phil, conducted by Marin Alsop, are part of the ``Art of the Guitar'' festival, which showcases the versatile instrument's uses in folk, country-rock, classical, chamber and jazz settings. It's the first time an L.A. Phil series has focused on a single instrument, and it also marks Fisk's first visit to the concert hall.

``Normally, when I've been in Los Angeles, I'm performing or teaching, so I haven't been inside the concert hall yet,'' Fisk said. ``I'm looking forward to it.''

It was after graduating Yale, when Fisk was asked to form the guitar department at the Yale School of Music, that he met Segovia and began private classes with the master. Segovia, who is credited with helping lift the guitar from the taverna to the concert hall, himself once commented that Fisk was ``one of the most brilliant, intelligent and gifted young musical artists of our time.'' Fisk is also the gatekeeper for the rights to repackaging all of Segovia's recorded music, an honor given to him by the late guitarist's wife.

``He was always about invention, reinvention, living in the feeling of the music he was creating,'' Fisk said. ``Those are the moments I strive for.''

Fred Shuster, [phone]

fred.shuster(at)dailynews.com

ELIOT FISK

Where: Disney Hall, 111 S. Grand Ave., Los Angeles.

When: 8 tonight and Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday.

Tickets: $37 to $129. [phone]. www.ticketmaster.com.

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Eliot Fisk still sees plenty of beauty, power and interest in Rodrigo's ``Concierto de Aranjuez,'' the guitar-and-orchestra work he performs tonight through Sunday with the Los Angeles Philharmonic.