How Do You Compose When You’re Blind?

Joaquín Rodrigo would know better than I. The Spanish composer, who died in 1999 at age 97, was left completely blind, or ciego, at a very young age and spent his entire musical career without sight. Though he most known for his Concierto de Aranjuez for guitar and orchestra, a different work of his lies closer to my heart: the Concierto como un Divertimento for cello and orchestra. Written for the British cellist Julian Lloyd Webber, it is a frivolous, lightly orchestrated piece that never fails to please.

Here is Lloyd Webber’s recording with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Jesús López-Cobos.