Width of the World

“While this may not be a typical Peter Sprague album (although that definition widens with each subsequent release), it’s an interesting, rewarding, and enjoyable foray into one of the most fertile musical imaginations to come out of San Diego. And with the title track, Sprague has written one of the most memorable songs of his ongoing career.”

Jim Trageser
September 2025
San Diego Troubadour

San Diego Union Tribune review by George Varga

San Diego Troubadour review by Jim Trageser

Back in 2002 I got a commission from the San Diego Symphony to compose a guitar concerto and perform it with the orchestra. I devoted a couple of months to write the piece and on May 25, 2002 we played the world premier concert at Symphony Hall in San Diego. It was me along with Fred Benedetti playing second guitar, Kevin Hennessy on bass, Duncan Moore on drums and something like 40 other orchestral musicians diving into the notes that I wrote.

It was a thrill and an honor and to be up on the edge of the stage listening and interacting with the orchestra was a moment for the books. What a sound, what a vibe!

But the performance wasn’t everything that I had hoped it would be. The main issue is that we didn’t have enough rehearsal time to pull together the music. I can understand the predicament, not enough money to pay all of the musicians and if my composition had been a little less involved that would have helped the situation. Also, and this was new to me, when you compose for an orchestra you need to carefully consider the “balances” of timber and volume between the instruments. For example, if you have the flutes carrying the melody, because they aren’t that loud, you need to tame down the rest of the orchestra so that they can be heard. For my composing demo, when I faced a situation like this I simply turned the flute volume up. This doesn’t work in a real orchestra, there are no volume knobs to turn up when you need something louder.

The concert got bootleg recorded but I’m talking about bargain basement quality and not really listenable.

So here we are 23 years later and I’m thinking it’d be a cool thing to have an audio realization of the piece that I’d spent so much time on. Let’s see, if I hire an orchestra to play and record the composition I might just as well go to Barstow and buy a decent house. Or I can do it myself with a little help from my studio machinery and some great real musos covering key sections of the orchestra.

So for the last couple of months I’ve been living in the detailed world of orchestral sample libraries mixed in with real drums, bass, bassoon, trumpet, violins, viola, cello, and of course my real guitar playing. It’s been a thrill to learn and experiment with the technology and even better, emerging with an album that is bringing to fruition my 23 years ago musical vision. It’s here and I’m happy!

Thanks for listening…
Peter Sprague
August, 2025

Here’s the line up:
Peter Sprague — guitar
Mack Leighton — bass
Duncan Moore —drums
Bridget Dolkas — violin
Pam Jacobson — viola
Rudy Stein — cello
Ryan Simmons — bassoon
Steve Dillard — trumpet

on “The Poet”
Kay Etheridge — piano
William Skeen — cello
David Ryther — violin
Peter Sprague — guitar

Produced by Peter Sprague
Recorded at SpragueLand Studios, Encinitas, CA / 2025
Recorded, mixed and mastered by Peter Sprague at SpragueLand Studios
Cover photo by Stefanie Sprague
Special thanks to John Parker, Cinematic Studio Strings, Yuris Zeltins, Andy Powers, D’Addario Strings, Iron Horse Amps
All songs composed and arranged by Peter Sprague

1) Width of the World
2) Morning in Marrakesh
3) Bachianas a Flor
4) The Joni Element
5) The Poet