The Concerto was adapted by the composer himself for the 1974 Harp and Orchestra Concerto at the request of Nicanor Zabaleta and dedicated to Zabaleta. This movement was later adapted by the jazz arranger Gil Evans for Miles Davis' 1960 album ' Sketches of Spain'.

The central adagio movement is one of the most recognizable in 20th-century classical music, featuring the interplay of guitar with cor anglais. It is a concerto for guitar and orchestra. In later life he and his wife declared that it was written as a response to the miscarriage of their first child. His most famous work, Concierto de Aranjuez, was composed in 1939 in Paris for the guitarist Regino Sainz de la Maza. Notable students include Yüksel Koptagel, Turkish composer and pianist. From 1947 Rodrigo was a professor of music history, holding the Manuel de Falla Chair of Music in the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters, at Complutense University of Madrid. His first published compositions date from 1923. After briefly returning to Spain, he went to Paris again to study musicology, first under Maurice Emmanuel and then under André Pirro. Rodrigo studied music under Francisco Antich in Valencia and under Paul Dukas at the École Normale de Musique in Paris. He wrote his compositions in Braille, and they were transcribed for publication. Although distinguished by having raised the Spanish guitar to dignity as a universal concert instrument and best known for his guitar music, he never mastered the instrument himself. He began to study solfège, piano and violin at the age of eight harmony and composition from the age of 16. Rodrigo was born in Sagunto ( Valencia), and completely lost his sight at the age of three after contracting diphtheria.

Rodrigo concierto de aranjuez pdf