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Classical Guitar Magazine 3

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ISSN 0950-429X © ASHLEY MARK PUBLISHING COMPANY

Features Editor:Guy Traviss

Reviews Editor:Tim Panting

Music Editor:Neil Smith

Managing Editor:Maurice J. Summerfield

News Editor:Thérèse Wassily Saba

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SUBSCRIPTIONS:All subscriptions to be addressed to:Jamie Quickfall, Ashley Mark Publishing Company, 1 & 2 Vance Court, Trans Britannia Enterprise Park,Blaydon on Tyne NE21 5NH, United Kingdom.TEL: +44 (0) 191 414 9000 FAX: +44 (0) 191 414 9001e-mail: [email protected] Web: www.ashleymark.co.uk

PUBLISHED MONTHLY BY:ASHLEY MARK PUBLISHING COMPANY1 & 2 Vance Court, Trans Britannia Enterprise Park,Blaydon on Tyne NE21 5NH, United Kingdom.TEL: +44 (0) 191 414 9000 FAX: +44 (0) 191 414 9001e-mail: [email protected] Web: www.ashleymark.co.uk

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Contributors:Lawrence Del Casale, Julia Crowe, Zbigniew Dubiella, Paul Fowles, Allan Clive Jones, Paul Magnussen, Oliver McGhie, Jorge Morel, Danielle Ribouillault, David Russell, Maria Isabel Siewers, Rico Stover, Maurice J. Summerfield, Graham Wade, William Yeoman, Luis Zea.Reviewers:John Arran, Vladislav Blaha, Julia Crowe, Chris Dumigan, Lorraine Eastwood, Paul Fowles, Sandra Hambleton-Smith, Derek Hasted, Allan Clive Jones, Linda Kelsall-Barnett, Stephen Kenyon, Steve Marsh, Tim Panting,Danielle Ribouillault, Neil Smith, Thérèse Wassily Saba, William Yeoman, Fabio Zanon.Advertisements: Jamie Quickfall.

Western Europe is defined as the following countries:Austria, Belgium, Denmark (inc Faroe Islands and Greenland), Finland, France (inc Andorra,Corsica and Monaco), Germany, Greece, Iceland, Ireland (Rep of), Italy (inc San Marino andVatican City), Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway (inc Spitzbergen), Portugal (inc the Azores andMadeira), Spain (inc Canary Islands), Sweden, Switzerland (inc Liechtenstein).All other countries Rest of the World.

4 Editorial5 Classical Guitar News – Compiled by Thérèse Wassily Saba8 Events, Festivals and Competitions

10 Concert Diary11 Manuel Barrueco – Interviewed by Thérèse Wassily Saba20 Guitar Playing for Adult Learners – by Carlos Bonell22 14th Hersbruck International Guitar Festival –

by Paul Fowles26 Music Matters, The Content and Context of Performance –

by Guy Traviss28 City of Derry Guitar Festival – by Paul Fowles30 Views from Everywhere – Compiled by Thérèse Wassily Saba33 22nd West Dean International Festival and Summer School –

by Guy Traviss36 Momentito – by Graham Wade37 Music Reviews43 CD Reviews45 Personal Reviews46 Book Reviews47 DVD Reviews48 Product Reviews49 Concert Reviews51 Rincon Flamenco No.70: DVD/Book Review – by Paul Magnussen54 Obituary – Oscar Castro-Neves (1940–2013)54 Letters to the Editor56 Classical Guitar Teachers57 Classical Guitar Societies

14th Hersbruck International Guitar Festival –

page 22.

City of Derry Guitar Festival – page 28.

Manuel Barrueco –page 11.

Although every care is taken toensure accuracy and propriety,neither the editors nor the pub-lishers necessarily agree withopinions expressed by contribu-tors, nor by readers in their pub-lished letters.

GUITAR

THE MODERN age is full of victimless crime: actionsruled illegal, but which are argued not to directly vio-late or threaten the rights of any other individuals.Such crimes include gambling, and there are manyother examples of criminal activity described as victim-less. Then there are those crimes that are almost vic-timless: in these cases, we have become much lessaware of the consequences of our actions or the actionscommitted against us. To this category we consignbreach of copyright, since its victims are often totallyunaware of the offenses against them. Loss of futureearnings is too abstract for it to be considered a realcrime, but in a sense it’s just the same as stealing ahardcopy book from a shop on behalf of another con-sumer. The copying of scores is commonplace, which isan irony as it’s doing damage to the very thing would-be copyists are so keen to nurture and promote.

The Internet age has exacerbated an already difficultsituation. File-sharing is so quickly and easily donethese days, and can now be accomplished by almostanyone, that it’s difficult to associate any kind of ille-gality with such behaviour. But with some thought, thenatural instinct to share what we already own seemsless innocent than we might at first suppose. ConsiderMatanya Ophee’s thoughts (Editions Orphée) on theprevalence of music copyright conduct in social media:

‘Today, for the second day in a row, I see on Facebooka request by someone for a copy of music which is pro-tected by copyright. Not by some poor student in athird-world country, but by established concert per-formers and teachers. The worst is that these requestsare almost instantly being responded to, again, in fullpublic view, by another person who is on the same levelof professional activity. Yes, I understand that some-times things get tight and you need a piece of musicright now for some professional activity. But commit-ting this crime in full public view, is not only doingdamage to the composers, their publishers and theirestates, but coming from one in a position of authority,is setting a very bad example for your own students.’

But it’s not all bad news. It has been suggested thatfile-sharing printed music in fact promotes sales forpublishers. The rationale is that no guitarist reallywants to read a score off the screen, and printed copiesare poor substitutes for original manuscripts. Whenyou have spent so long working out your fingerings,and customising a work for performance, you want tothen own that piece of music. So the digital age mightjust be one that ushers in the era of retrospective pur-chasing. Publishers, in their darker moments, might dowell to think of illegal copies as samples of their work,complete though they may be. Whatever view you take,I guess we can only go by what the sales figures tell us.

GUY TRAVISS

IS A piece of music more significant because it is writ-ten down and printed than if it were interpreted via anoral or aural tradition? And is a piece of music soimportant that its original form must be hallowed tothe point where it is slavishly worshipped as if in ashrine; kept like a saint’s relics behind glass? And, toborrow a phrase, is ‘imitation’, really, ‘the sincerestform of flattery’? Can a person’s attempt at reconstruc-tion or interpretation cause near apoplexy among thosewho, for whatever reason, perceive their musical valuesto be of a higher nature than that of the grazing milieubelow? Is it possible for a truly great piece of music to

withstand onslaughts from lesser beings, barely able tokiss its polyphonic feet, before it cries out ‘no more!’? Ofcourse not, great music, in whatever form, triumphs,for it is made of the air. Nothing but a vacuum candestroy music’s beauty.

Truth, honesty and integrity: a convenient trinity tohave to hand when discussing the merits of composedsound and to steer this editorial away from becoming aplethora of polemics it is probably safe to assume thatthose values are accepted requisites for those involvedin all aspects of music making. For what makes goodmusic good is usually an abundance of all three. The‘masterpiece’ has more often than not achieved its sta-tus by widespread acclaim and although not always,owing to occasional seismic shifts in popular tastes,remains a ‘masterpiece’, forever.

A truly famous example of ‘great’ art being lam-pooned springs to mind and although the subject mat-ter of ‘What’s Opera, Doc?’ the 1957 cartoon classic isa perfect set up for such iconoclastic treatment, i.e.Richard Wagner’s bombastic ‘genius’, it was no sur-prise that a musical fatwa from Bayreuth was notissued against Chuck Jones, Mel Blanc and WarnerBros. Studios etc.. Wagnerians most likely chuckled orroared with laughter along with the rest of the audi-ences. Bugs Bunny was safe.

Which is more than can be said for the poor soul whocommitted albeit innocent butchery on a grand scaleagainst Tárrega’s Recuerdos de la Alhambra; previouseditorials aside notwithstanding, how many recoiled inhorror at Mike Oldfield’s blasphemy with Étude? Thevaledictory music to the soundtrack of ‘The KillingFields’, based on Cambodia’s horrific journey back toYear Zero; listen at your peril.

TIM PANTING

Classical Guitar Magazine4

certo for Guitar and Orchestra’ on a CD or in a concertprogramme generally produce feelings of apprehensionin at least one pair of ears. with a concerto by Mozart orBeethoven)? An over-familiar Vivaldi? An edited version Editorial

Russell premières Nyman

The British composer and pianist MichaelNyman has written his first work for thesolo guitar, which David Russell premièredat the Uppsala International Guitar Festivalin Sweden, as part of their tenth anniver-sary celebrations in October 2013. DavidRussell talks to me about the preparationfor the première of Semley Sequences byMichael Nyman, and the reason for thescreen of himself in this photograph, in hiscover interview in the January 2014 issue ofClassical Guitar magazine.

Michael Nyman gives the background tothe work, ‘Semley Sequences, my very firstcomposition for solo classical guitar, wascomposed in the summer of 2013, and isdedicated to the 80-year-old Julian Bream,who I first met, in a bizarre sequence ofmusical and geographical consequencesthat started at the Royal Academy of Musicwhen I started studying there in 1961.

‘My best friend was the sadly recently-departed composer John Telford who, as ateenager had known Peter Maxwell Daviesin Manchester. John had decided not to livein London and Max recommended that hecontact Harrison Birtwistle in Wardour,close to Tisbury, in Wiltshire, to find him acottage to live in [at that time Birtwistle wasteaching at Cranborne Chase girls’ publicschool at Wardour Castle, where the epoch-making “English Darmstadt” compositionsummer school was held in 1964]. JulianBream lived in the neighbourhood – in thevillage Semley – so I met him as part of the“new music” scene, having already beenfamiliar with his work as lutenist in theearly 17th-century English instrumentalmusic that the Julian Bream Consort pio-neered.

‘In this same summer of 2013, my daugh-ter, knowing of my continuing fondness forthe countryside around Tisbury, but notknowing anything about Semley, rented ahouse for the summer – in SEMLEY, ofcourse! Semley, my first guitar piece, a con-versation with David Russell about the gen-erosity and importance of Julian Bream asteacher and role-model for younger gui-tarists – all conspired to make SemleySequences the inevitable title.

‘Equally inevitable is my thanks to thebrilliance of David Russell for so diligentlyand necessarily translating “music” into“guitar music”!’

John Mills in BBC Music

John Mills’s two-disc recording, Segovia: TheRamírez Years, has received a glowing reviewin the December 2013 issue of BBC Music


Classical Guitar NewsCompiled by THÉRÈSE WASSILY SABA

David Russell premières Michael Nyman.


magazine. The reviewer, Rob Ainsley, whogave it the full five stars, wrote: ‘No flashiness,no empty “virtuosity”; instead, this is playingwith grace, beauty and poise that will surelycaptivate even those who (like me) findSegovia’s own rubatos too lofty.’

Alhambra launch with Graham Devine

A special event celebrating the three newmodels of hand-made Alhambra guitars willbe held at the London Guitar Studio onThursday 5 December 2013 at 7pm. GrahamAnthony Devine will perform on each of theguitars: the José Miguel Moreno Serie C, JoséMaría Vilaplana Serie NT and Mengual &Margarit Serie C. Manufacturas Alhambrahas always had a dedicated guitar-maker’sworkshop within its factory, where its top pro-fessional models are handmade. José MaríaVilaplana, a renowned guitar-maker, who hasworked at Alhambra for decades, builds hisSerie NT in a Torres style. José MaríaVilaplana will be attending the evening event,as well as the Managing Director of Alhambrasl, Juan Sanchis Reig and the InternationalSales Manager, Jorge Juliá Anduix. Guestsare welcome to attend this intimate soirée butplease telephone the London Guitar Studio toconfirm a place, tel. 020 7493 1157.

Rivet and Pahud at Wigmore

The flautist Emmanuel Pahud will be giving arecital with guitarist and composer ChristianRivet at Wigmore Hall, London on Sunday 22December 2013. Their programme includes amixture of solo works and duo repertoire

Handel’s Sonata for Flute and Guitar in Gminor, Op. 1 No. 2, Duo for flute and guitarOp. 16 No. 2 and No. 3 by Francesco Molino,Scrivo in Vento for solo flute by Elliott Carter,L’Aube Enchantée sur Le Raga ‘todi’ for fluteand guitar by Ravi Shankar, Piazzolla’sHistoire du Tango for flute and guitar, Bartók’sRomanian Folk Dances, Sz. 68 (arr. flute andguitar), as well as two pieces by ChristianRivet: At Left for solo guitar and Clap for fluteand guitar.

Alessandria Finals

The Finals of the 46th InternationalCompetition for Classical Guitar MichelePittaluga were held in Alessandria, Italy onSaturday, 28 September 2013. Of the 20 com-petitors, there were eight chosen for the semi-final round: Tal Hurwitz (Israel), EkachaiJearakul (Thailand), Marko Topchii (Ukaine),three Italians Gianmarco Ciampa, EmanueleBuono and Andrea Roberto, Jerzy Chwastik(Poland) and Anton Baranov (Russia). Thecompulsory set work was Evocacion III by theSpanish composer Anton García Abril, whowas invited to be the of President of the Jury.The First Prize went to Emanuele Buono(Italy); Second Prize to Ekachai Jearakul(Thailand); and Third Prize to Anton Baranov(Russia).

Gary Ryan’s Dreams

The British guitarist and composer, GaryRyan has just had his guitar duo Dreams,Rest and Motion published by Camden MusicLondon. This is his eighth publication withCamden Music which include another piecefor guitar duo, Generator, as well as his popu-lar compositions for guitar solo, Scenes fromthe Wild West, Songs from Erin, Scenes fromBrazil, City Scenes and two books of pieces forbeginner and intermediate-level players,Scenes for Guitar, Books I and II.

Gary Ryan was appointed Professor ofGuitar at the Royal College of Music, Londonin 1996 and in 2009 was appointed AssistantHead of Strings. On15 May 2013 he wasawarded a Fellowshipof the Royal College ofMusic by HRH PrinceCharles. The FRCM isan honorary awardfor musicians whohave a made an out-standing contributionto the internationalmusical world; GaryRyan is the fourthguitarist to receivethis award after

Graham Anthony Devine.

Gary Ryan.

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Andrés Segovia, Julian Bream and JohnWilliams.www.garyryan.co.uk

Paco Peña Hijo Predilecto

The flamenco guitarist Paco Peña has beengiven a special award by the Ayuntamiento ofCordoba in Spain, named as: Hijo Predilecto deCórdoba. He was presented with the Gold Medalof the City of Cordoba by the mayor, JoséAntonio Nieto on 8 October 2013.

Paco Peña was born in Cordoba. He startedplaying the guitar at the age of six and beganperforming in public from the age of 12. In the1960s moved to London, which became thebase for his busy international career. He hashowever always kept a close connection and ahome in Cordoba; being one of nine children, hesays it feels as if he never really left. Paco Peñaestablished the Centro Flamenco Paco Peña inCordoba and began to organise an internation-al guitar festival, which brought internationalplayers together from the classical, jazz and fla-menco world for a number of years; his verysuccessful guitar festival established theground for the present Festival Internacional dela Guitarra in Cordoba. Paco Peña continuesmake a great contribution to the appreciation offlamenco throughout the world, creating mas-terpiece flamenco productions, which are eager-ly awaited by his international audience.

Mermikides’ Compendium

The classical and electric guitarist, BridgetMermikides has been writing a monthly classi-cal guitar column for Guitar Techniques maga-zine for a number of years, where she publish-es her arrangements of popular pieces, such asThe Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies byTchaikowsky and La Forza del Destino by Verdi.Thirty-six of these have been selected and pub-lished in her book, The Classical GuitarCompendium: Classical Masterpieces Arrangedfor Solo Guitar, which also includes two CDswith her recordings of the pieces (Hal Leonard).

‘El Bola’ in London

We have always been lucky that some fine fla-menco guitarists have considered London to

be their first/sec-ond homes. Arecent addition totheir ranks is theflamenco guitarist,Agustín Carbonell‘El Bola’. El Bolacomes from a linelegendary flamencoperformers whichincludes his father

the flamenco singer Agustín Montoya, hisuncle the flamenco guitarist José CarbonellMontoyita and his great-uncle AgustínCastellón Campos ‘Sabicas’ (1912–1990). Hehas worked closely with some of flamenco’sfinest singers, dancers and guitarists. Despitebeing such an integral part of flamenco inSpain, he is clearly attracted by the experi-ences of living abroad: in 1997 he went to livein Brazil and remained there for eight years.Let’s hope he remains here in London for asimilar length of time, at least.

Apart from his achievements as a flamencoguitarist and a composer, El Bola has beenconducting extensive research into the life ofthe flamenco guitarist Ramón Montoya(1880–1949), about whom he says relativelylittle has been written. The inspiration to startthis research came after he organised a con-cert in homage to Ramón Montoya, which washeld in the Jardines de Sabatini of the PalacioReal, Madrid in July 2012, where he also per-formed pieces by Ramón Montoya. He will bepublishing a book with the newly discoveredmaterial, which his research has uncovered.

In contrast to this research into flamencofigures of the past, El Bola’s latest recording,Rojo y Rosa – Música y baile del nuevo flamen-co, is very much looking forward, featuring thedouble bass player Javier Colina, and thedancers Karen Lugo and Tamar González,who performed with him in his show of thesame name. www.agustincarbonellbola.com

Classical Guitar – Cover price

It is six years since Classical Guitar magazinerose in price (January 2008) from £2.95 to£3.95 monthly. The last 12 months have seensome steep rises in our production and mailcosts and as a result with our January 2014issue the cover price of Classical Guitar mag-azine will be £4.95. However, we knowClassical Guitar remains excellent value cost-ing quite a lot less than a large glass of decentwine in most UK restaurants.

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Paco Peña receives the Gold Medal of the City of Cordoba from the mayor, José Antonio Nieto.

Agustin Carbonell 'El Bola'.

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FESTIVALS & COMPETITIONS

9–15 December 2013, Singapore: The 11thInternational Guitar Festival 2013 with JohnMills, Pavel Steidl, Berta Rojas, Eric Franceries,Franco Morone and Bernard Maillot, including the6th International Guitar Competition with nolimits on age or nationality, contact: Robert Liew,Tomas Music Consultants Pte Ltd, tel. +65 63443671, +65 6447 0177.email: [email protected]

13–15 December 2013, Tokyo, Japan: The 56thTokyo International Guitar Competition 2013for guitarists born after 1978, with first round on19 August 2013 by recording and the second andthird rounds at the Bunka-kaikan Recital Hall inTokyo in December. Entry deadline: 31 July 2013.Contact: Japan Federation of Guitarists, 6–14–4,Wada bldg 5F, Shimbashi, Minato-ku, Tokyo 105-0004, Japan. Tel. 81 3 3438 1819. Fax 81 3 34381899.www.guitarists.or.jp/compulsory-e.html

10–30 January 2014, New York: The New YorkGuitar Festival with Pepe Romero, Badi Assad,all-day Guitar Marathon co-curated by WilliamKanengiser and Badi Assad, and Marc Ribot, ChrisEldridge, Kaki King, Luther Dickinson, AlvinYoungblood Hart, Toubab Krewe and JosephArthur will première scores for classic silent films. www.newyorkguitarfestival.org

13–18 January 2014, New Plymouth, NewZealand: The Taranaki Classical Guitar SummerSchool 2014 with William Kanengiser, SimoneIannarelli, Sydney Guitar Trio (Richard Charlton,Raffaele and Janet Agostino), John Couch, MilesJackson and Duo Jackson, Gunter Herbig, TimWatanabe, Owen Moriarty, the New ZealandGuitar Quartet, Paul Zdrenka and Rod Capper.Contact: Dominique Blatti, Coordinator, tel. +64(06) 752 7400.email: dominique.blatti@taranakisummerschool.comwww.taranakisummerschool.com

8 February 2014, Stuttgart, Germany: The 6thInternational Rago Competition 2014 for gui-tarists up to 18 years old. Entry deadline: 31December 2013. The competition is organised anddirected by the Duo Montes-Kircher and theStuttgarter Musikschule.email: [email protected]

11–16 March 2014, Belgrade, Serbia: The XVInternational Guitar Art Festival with EduardoFernández, Dusan Bogdanovic, Hubert Käppel,Badi Assad, Eliot Fisk, Costas Cotsiolis, AnielloDesiderio, Zoran Dukic, Martha Masters, ThomasOffermann, Katona Twins, Roberto Fabbri, LukaszKuropaczewski, Johannes Moller, Gabriel Bianco,Xhevdet Sahatxhija, Dejan Ivanovic & MichalisKontaxakis duo, Edin Karamzov, Vojislav Ivanovic,Zbigniew Gnatek, Vasileios Sygletos, Guy Traviss,Srdjan Tosic, Anton Crnugelj, Vera Ogrizovic, Ante

Events, Festivals & CompetitionsCompiled by THÉRÈSE WASSILY SABA

London International Guitar Competition

The second London International GuitarCompetition was held during the LondonInternational Guitar Festival from 23–31October 2013. The semi-final round at theRoyal College of Music had six semi-finalists

competing: Srdjan Bulat (Croatia), Alp OzanBursalioglu (Turkey), Gil Fesch (Portugal),Vladimir Gaponstev (Russia), MikkelEgelund Nielsen (Denmark) and LauraSnowden (UK). As compère, I sat in thesoundproof off-stage area, ready to intro-duce each performer. It was soundproofbetween off-stage and the hall, however, Ihad the pleasure of hearing all the activitiesof a busy music college, including a studentpractising God Save our Gracious Queen ona timpani, in a continuous loop without anypause throughout the semi-finals – some-thing that could only happen in a Britishmusic college.

The Finals were held at Kings Place onSaturday 26 October and the winners were:First Prize: Mikkel Egelund Nielsen; SecondPrize: Srdjan Bulat; and Third Prize: LauraSnowden.

Oscar Castro-Neves (1940–2013)

The Brazilian guitarist and orchestrator,Oscar Castro-Neves died of cancer on 27September 2013 in Los Angeles. An obituaryappears on page 54 of this issue of ClassicalGuitar magazine.

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Winners of the London International Guitar Competition:Second Prize: Srdjan Bulat; Third Prize: Laura Snowdenand First Prize: Mikkel Egelund Nielsen.


Radnic, Djani Sehu, Jelica Mijanovic, StelaDinkova, Zoran Krajisnik, Darko Karajic, MilosJanjic. Contact: Bosko Radojkovic, FestivalDirector, 530 Bul. Kralja Aleksandra St, 11000Belgrade, Serbia. Mobile: +381 64 140 7583, tel./fax: +381 11 220 6245.email: [email protected] www.gaf.rs

26–29 March 2014, Antony, France: The 15thInternational Guitar Competition à Antony isopen to guitarists of any nationality without an agelimit. Entry deadline: 14 March 2014. Contact:Rencontres Internationales de la Guitare, ServiceCulturel, BP 60086, 92161 Antony Cedex, France.Tel. +33 (0)1 4096 7282, email: [email protected]

28 March 2014, London: The 16th Ivor MairantsGuitar Award for guitarists of any nationality res-ident in the EU for the past 12 months, and/orenrolled in a UK conservatoire and born on or after1 January 1987. The set works include any workby Ivor Mairants or selected movements from hisJazz Sonatas for Guitar (Mel Bay). Entry deadline:25 February 2014. For applications, contact: theClerk, The Worshipful Company of Musicians, email: [email protected]

2–6 April 2014: Long Island, USA: The 22nd LongIsland Guitar Festival with Frederic Hand, VIDAGuitar Quartet, Derek Gripper, Thibault Cauvinand Paul Cesarczyk. Contact, Festival Director,Harris Becker, tel. (516) 299 3181. email: [email protected]/gfest

14–17 April 2014, Lebach, Germany: The 6thGuitar Festival for Children and Youth‘Gitarrentage für Kinder und Jugendliche imSaarland’ for 8–17 year olds with Roberto Ausseland Vladimir Gorbach. The 5th ConcursoInternacional de Composición, for works writtenfor young guitarists in ensemble is now acceptingentries; the winning compositions will be pub-lished in Chanterelle’s fifth volume of PlayingTogether. Contact: Inés Peragallo, Kulturamt derStadt Lebach, Am Markt 1, D 66822 Lebach,Germany.email: [email protected]

31 May–4 June 2013, Sorrento, Italy: TheSorrento Guitar Fest with Pascuale Rucco,Stephen Robinson and Douglas James.Registration deadline: 15 March 2014. Contact:Patrece Robinson,email: [email protected]

2–9 June 2014, Koblenz, Germany: The 22ndKoblenz International Guitar Festival &Academy 2014 with Pepe Romero, ManuelBarrueco, David Russell, Hubert Käppel, AlvaroPierri, Pavel Steidl, Marcin Dylla, Zoran Dukic,Aniello Desiderio, Lucio Matarrazo, JudicaelPerroy, Goran Krivokapic, Alexander S. Ramírez,Jorge Caballero, Alfred Eickholt, Tadashi Sasaki,Wolfgang Dey, Günter Schillings, Russell Poyner,Sabrina Vlaskalic, Beijing Guitar Duo, FrankHaunschild Trio featuring Philip Catherine,Staatsorchester Rheinische Philharmonie andmore, and the Koblenz International GuitarCompetition ‘Hubert Käppel’.email: [email protected]

4–7 June 2014, Buffalo, NY, USA. The JoAnnFalletta International Guitar ConcertoCompetition, presented by the Western NewYork Public Broadcasting Association and theBuffalo Philharmonic Orchestra. Entry deadline:1 April 2014. Contact: Directors, JoanneCastellani and Michael Andriaccio,www.fallettacompetition.org

20–25 June 2014, Los Angeles, CA, USA. TheGuitar Foundation of America InternationalConvention and Competition with JorgeCaballero, Tilman Hoppstock, Paul O’Dette, AnaVidovic and the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet atCSU Dominguez Hills, hosted by Scott Morrisand Matthew Greif, contact:email: [email protected]

5–12 July 2014, Liechtenstein: TheLiechtensteiner Gitarrentage ligita 2014 withAlvaro Pierri, David Russell, Roland Dyens,Pablo Marquez, Solo Duo, Leon Koudelak, NejcKuhar, Joao Carlos Victor (winner 2013 ligitacompetition), Stefan Hackl, Michael Buchrainer,Walter Würdinger, Manolo Franco (flamenco),Tiroler Wechselsaitige (tyrolean folk music).Contact: Liechtensteiner Gitarrentage ligita,Elmar Gangl, organizing president, tel. +423 7926233.email: [email protected]

17–20 July 2014, Adelaide, Australia: TheAdelaide International Guitar Festival 2014will include the Adelaide InternationalClassical Guitar Competition with First PrizeAUD$10,000 and a Jim Redgate guitar($16,000). For full details:www.adelaideguitarfestival.com.au

16–22 August 2014, West Dean, Britain: The23rd West Dean International Classical GuitarFestival & Summer School with Los AngelesGuitar Quartet (William Kanengiser, ScottTennant, Matthew Greif & John Dearman),Cecilia Rodrigo, Antigoni Goni, Craig Ogden,Peter Nuttall, Stephen Gordon, Frank Lamm,Gary Ryan, Vincent Lindsey-Clark, PrimaveraChamber Ensemble (John Mills: guitar, PaulManley: violin & Andrew Fuller: cello) with CobieSmit. Directed by Andrew Gough. Bursaries areavailable for students aged 16–24 years old.Contact: The Bookings Office, West DeanCollege, West Dean, Chichester, West Sussex,PO18 0QZ. Tel. 0844 499 4408, +44 1243 811301, Fax: +44 (0) 1243 818293 email: [email protected]

Seasons Greetingsto our readers

all over the World

C L A S S I C A L

GUITAR


DECEMBER 20131 SundayFlorida: XUEFEI YANG. Clarke Recital Hall,University of Miami, 7.30pm.London: JEFF RODRIGUES. St Matthew’s ChurchHall, North Common Road, Ealing W5 2QA, 7pm.Sedona, AZ: LOS ROMEROS. Performing Arts Center,995 Upper Red Rock Loop Road, AZ 86336, 2.30pm.3 TuesdayNew York: XUEFEI YANG. 92nd Street Y, SubCulture,45 Bleecker St, Downstairs, 7.30pm.6 FridayBirmingham: LEO TURNER. Birmingham Museumand Art Gallery, Chamberlain Square, B3 3DH,1.10pm.Middlebury, VT: XUEFEI YANG. Mahaney Center forthe Arts, Middlebury College, 72 Porter Field Rd, VT05753. Tel. 802 443 3168.7 SaturdaySan Francisco, CA: LA GUITAR QUARTET. SFJAZZCenter, 201 Franklin St, CA 94102, 7.30pm. Tel. 415242 4500.13 FridayWest Bromwich: DODICI CORDE EARLY ROMANTICGUITAR DUO. Oak House, Oak Rd, B70 8HJ,7.30pm. Tel. 07807 199 870.14 SaturdayNew York: SHARON ISBIN. Kaufmann Concert Hall,8pm.Valencia, Spain: SERGIO SANTES & VICENT GELÓSTEN (flute). Amigos de la Guitarra, Museo de BellasArtes de Valencia, Calle San Pío V, n. 9, 46010, 7pm. 22 SundayLondon: EMMANUEL PAHUD (flute) & CHRISTIANRIVET (guitar). Wigmore Hall, 7.30pm. Tel. 020 79352141.28 SaturdayBarcelona: BARCELONA 4 GUITARS. Sala deConciertos, Palau de la Música Catalana, 12 noon.

JANUARY 20145 SundayCartagena, Colombia: ASSAD DUO. AuditorioGetsemaní, Centro de Convenciones, 7pm.9 ThursdayBaltimore, MD: MANUEL BARRUECO & BaltimoreSymphony Orchestra, conducted by Marin Alsop.Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall, 8pm (première ofconcerto for guitar and orchestra by JonathanLeshnoff)12 SundayBaltimore, MD: MANUEL BARRUECO & BaltimoreSymphony Orchestra, conducted by Marin Alsop.Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall, 3pm (concerto forguitar and orchestra by Jonathan Leshnoff)New Plymouth, New Zealand: WILLIAM KANENGISER.Tel. (06) 752 7400.15 WednesdayNew York: JOÃO LUIZ & HYE-JIN KIM (violin). ReneeWeiler Concert Hall, Greenwich House Music School,46 Barrow St, 7.30pm. Tel. 800 838 3006. 17 FridayLondon: CRAIG OGDEN, MARK PADMORE (tenor),STEVEN OSBORNE (piano), HEATH QUARTET.Wigmore Hall, 7.30pm. (music of Sir Michael Tippett).San Francisco, CA: TOMMY EMMANUEL & MARTINTAYLOR. Palace of Fine Arts Theater, 3301 Lyon St, CA94123, 7.30pm. Tel. 415 242 4500.18 SaturdayBethesda, MD: KUPINSKI GUITAR DUO.Westmoreland Congregational Church, 1Westmoreland Circle, MD 20816, 8pm. Tel. 301 6546403.San Francisco, CA: TOMMY EMMANUEL & MARTINTAYLOR. Palace of Fine Arts Theater, 3301 Lyon St, CA94123, 7.30pm. Tel. 415 242 4500.19 SundayNevada, CA: JASON VIEAUX. Seventh-day AdventistChurch, 12889 Osborne Hill Road, Grass Valley, 2pm.Tel. 530 273 3990.22 WednesdayLivermore, CA: BRIAN GORE, MIKE DAWES, PINOFORASTIRE, QUIQUE SINESI. Bankhead Theater,2400 First Street, Downtown, CA 94550, 7.30pm. Tel.925 373 6800.25 SaturdayEastleigh, Hants: AMANDA COOK & CLAIREWILLIAMS (harpsichord). The Point, Leigh Road,Eastleigh SO50 9DE, 8pm. Shaker Heights, OH: BEIJING GUITAR DUO. PlymouthChurch UCC, 2860 Coventry Road, 7.30pm. Tel. 216905 9348.28 TuesdayBryan, TX: VIDA GUITAR QUARTET. FirstPresbyterian Church, 1100 Carter Creek Pkwy,7.30pm. Tel. 979 823 8073.Carlsbad, CA: BRIAN GORE, MIKE DAWES, PINOFORASTIRE, QUIQUE SINESI. Ruby G. SchulmanAuditorium, Carlsbad Dove Library, 1775 Dove Lane,CA 92008, 7pm.

FEBRUARY 20143 MondayLondon: SEAN SHIBE. Wigmore Hall, 1pm. Tel. 0207935 2141.7 FridayNew York: BERTA ROJAS. Baruch Performing ArtsCenter, 55 Lexington Avenue, 8pm. Tel. 646 312 5073. 12 WednesdayChipping Norton: XUEFEI YANG & AUBADE (docu-mentary film première). Chipping Norton Theatre.13 ThursdayFort Worth, TX: DUO SIQUEIRA LIMA. 7.30pm. Tel.817 498 0363.14 FridayDallas, TX: DUO SIQUEIRA LIMA. University ParkUnited Methodist Church, 8pm. Tel. 817 498 0363.San Francisco, CA: CHRIS THILE (mandolin). SFJAZZCenter, 201 Franklin St, CA 94102, 7.30pm. Tel. 415242 4500.

Concert Diary

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MANUEL BARRUECO'S performing and recordingschedule is as busy as ever. I spoke to him aboutthe baroque recordings which have punctuated hisdiscography throughout his career as well as histwo most recent releases: Chaconne – A BaroqueRecital featuring music by Bach, Scarlatti andWeiss and Medea – Spanish music by Albéniz,Granados and Sanlúcar, and the new work writtenfor him Roberto Sierra, Fantasía for guitar andstring quartet.

Thérèse Wassily Saba: Performing baroque musichas been an important thread throughout your career.Even your Concierto Barroco recording with theConcierto Barroco, which was written for you by thePuerta Rican composer Roberto Sierra, included twoVivaldi concertos, but there have been recordingscompletely dedicated to baroque music.Manuel Barrueco: Yes, I recorded the Bach Sonatasin 1997 and I also did the Bach and de Visée record-ing many years ago; it was first released in 1990.

Was the Bach and de Visée recording released on avinyl record? No, both were released on CD by EMI Classics; I didrecord the second and fourth lute suites on a vinylrecording in around 1980 or so.

Let’s talk about that very first recording then. Youwere a very young player – you were really one of our‘Superman’ heroes of the classical guitar world. Atthe time that you released that recording, there wasonly the Julian Bream recording with lute suites No.1 and No. 2 and the John Williams recording with allfour suites, so it was quite a ground-breaking step totake. I can still remember the excitement of going outto buy that record; we were all wanting to hear yourinterpretational ideas because of course, Bream andWilliams were a generation before you. Great thingswere expected and we were not disappointed. Howdid you feel about making such a recording at thetime?I put a lot of effort into that recording, a lot.When you listen to that recording and you listento the individual melodic lines, you can hear thatat least I was attempting to make each line inde-pendent from the others, by focusing on thearticulation, which was difficult. When I record-ed it, it had not been very long since I hadbecome more interested in this whole idea of per-formance practice and I had been reading aboutbaroque performance; I was listening to musi-cians such as Gustav Leonhardt, who had a hugeinfluence on me. I am going to say somethingthat is perhaps going to sound a little bit crazy

MANUEL BARRUECOdiscusses his baroque and latest recordings

With THÉRÈSE WASSILY SABA


but I think I am old enough to be able to saythese things now: when I used to hear Bach onother instruments, it sounded so exciting, and onthe guitar it just sounded boring. I just thoughtthat the way Bach was being played on the gui-tar was boring, so I got to work on trying to makeit more exciting: I tightened up all the rhythms, Iworked a lot on articulation and on the dynam-ics, all of which I thought helped spark it up. Iworked a lot on the ornamentation and I just putin a trill here and there; it wasn’t any more elab-orate than that. There are some things that I didthen, that I cannot do any differently now even ifI tried, that is how convincing it was for me. Sothat was my main goal: to make it sound morelike Bach, more baroque and hopefully, moreexciting. I wanted it to sound more like the Bachcharacter that I was hearing from other instru-mentalists, which was so full of life.

If I have any regrets about that recording, it isthat maybe I should have waited a little bit longer;there are some things that I did that were still toonew for me and they had not really settled insideof me. For example, sometimes the rhythmic free-dom – the rubato – goes overboard. That is proba-bly the one thing that I would control more, if I didit again, but at that time, it seemed right. It was anew discovery for me; I fell in love with that way ofplaying.

Actually my experience with Leonhardt’s record-ings is that sometimes he goes overboard too:sometimes he will be extremely loose and then hewill be extremely tight, so I would tighten that upa little.

Was there a reason you chose to record those twosuites?Lute Suite No. 2: probably because it was the firstsuite that I learned. I had heard it in the Breamrecording and the fourth suite probably seemed likea challenge to me.

Then the next Bach recording was released on aCD?Yes, that was the Bach and de Visée recording. Forthe Bach, I recorded the whole Violin Partita No. 2with the Chaconne and a suite and an ouverture byde Visée.

Why did you choose the de Visée to put alongside theBach?I did it because when I looked back at the way thatde Visée was transcribed for the guitar from thebaroque guitar, I felt that the people who madethose transcriptions, despite having the best inten-tions, really did not understand the style. Forexample, if you look at some of the Pujol arrange-ments, I think there is a lack of understanding ofthe ‘guitaristic’ style of the music. When I heardthis music played on the baroque guitar – I hadbecome friends with Michael Lorimer and he wasplaying the baroque guitar – I started to under-stand more about the baroque guitar; it is a verydifferent style. Maybe Pujol was trying to make itmore standard baroque or maybe more Germanicor maybe more like Bach. They couldn’t stand nothaving voices in the bass, so they put notes into thebass but then did nothing with the rasgueados andall the techniques that people like de Visée weredoing at that time. The French baroque is a partic-ular style – it is very stylised music. I went to workon it and I wanted to try to capture the sound thatI heard on the baroque guitar and the flavours andthe French style of de Visée as much as possible. Ieven had a guitar made by Robert Ruck with dou-ble coursed strings, although I didn’t use it somuch. I did things that I had never done before: forsome of the arpeggios, for example, I would playwith two notes, so it would resemble the idea of thedouble courses, and of course there was the orna-mentation.

When you recorded the Bach Violin Partita, hadyou changed or developed your view of Bach’s


music? Did you listen to violinists to see how theywere approaching these partitas?By that time, just about the one and only influ-ence was Gustav Leonhardt. I did listen to GlennGould but it really was Leonhardt for me. Theother thing about Leonhardt was that he alsoarranged things; not only did he play the originalrepertoire for keyboard but he also arranged allthe cello suites, so he was really behaving like abaroque performer. He was not only a player ofbaroque music but he was a complete baroquemusician. Leonhardt said that if you try to soundauthentic, then you will not sound authentic butif you play with conviction, then you will soundauthentic. He also had fun with the music; whenhe transcribed music, he let his imagination go. Ina way, I tried to do that with the whole partita andparticularly with the Chaconne. I did things that Ihadn’t done before with the Chaconne.

I actually haven’t heard that recording for a longtime. I thought to myself recently that I should lis-ten to it as I was going to record it again.

Do you not go back to listen? Is that something youdon’t do on purpose?No, I just don’t have the desire to do it. RecentlyI’ve been thinking about it and I would like to doit.

Was Bach’s Prelude, Fugue and Allegro a piecethat was with you from the start of your playingcareer?No, that was a piece that I picked up later on. Iwas concerned that everything would sound toosimilar as the de Visée pieces were in B minor andthe Chaconne was in D minor and the Prelude,Fugue and Allegro was also in D, so I played itwith a capo to give more variations to the sound.

Did it really change the resonance of the piece?I’m sure it did but I was thinking more harmoni-cally from the standpoint of the listener.

Then came your third Bach recording, of theSonatas.There I recorded the three solo violin sonatas.

That recording was important because you alsopublished your transcriptions, which meant a lotmore people started playing those works on theguitar. I think in many ways the violin sonatas are evenbetter than the lute suites.

The question that people are always confronted bywhen transcribing the solo violin sonatas and par-titas for the guitar is how much bass to add. Didyou have strong feelings about this?I did. When I recorded the fourth and the secondlutes suites, I was trying to be as accurate as Icould be with the score. When I played the Dminor Partita with the Chaconne, I wanted to seewhat I could do with it, performing it in a freer

way. But by the time I came to play the Sonatas,for me the criteria became: if somebody playedthat to me, would I hear the hand of the arrangeror would I believe that it was written by Bach?That was the way I approached it; I did not wantto interfere with the pieces and I tried to convincemyself that I did what Bach would have done.

Now there are some people who believe that ifyou really want to sound authentic, then youshouldn’t add anything. But the thing is, thatwould be really stylistically incorrect becauseBach did add things and not only did he addthings but also sometimes he would add thingsthat had nothing to do with what was implied, forexample, in the opening of the C major Sonata.

With hindsight, are you happy with the result? Noconcerns about the rubato this time?No, this of course is more mature and years afterthat last recording. I was a younger player thenand there’s nothing wrong with that really.

Although the Roberto Sierra Concierto Barrocorecording is not baroque, it does have a place inthe baroque series.I had read a book called Concierto Barroco byAlejo Carpentier, and there was a chapter wherethere was a jam session in Venice betweenScarlatti, Handel and a Cuban African slaveplaying percussion on utensils. I told Robertoabout it and asked him to write a piece with thesame idea, that is, with this fantasy of thebaroque music but in a modern style with mod-ern and Latin American music.

Then that piece inspired Roberto to writeFolias, which I was delighted with. Obviously itcontains baroque elements in it with the foliastheme but instead of having the Latin Americanelements, now it was more Spanish, with thebaroque elements and the more modern.

Then another piece on that recording that Ireally wanted to do was Arvo Pärt’s Fratres. Ican’t remember how I established contact withhim; maybe I just wrote to him. I had discov-ered Pärt’s music and I was really in love withit. I asked him if he would write something for

Roberto Sierra and Manuel Barrueco.


JOANNE CASTELLANI & MICHAEL ANDRIACCIOARTISTIC DIRECTORS

The Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra and WNED/WBFO Buffalo-Toronto

PROUDLY ANNOUNCE A CALL FOR COMPETITORS

For Competition Information go to fallettacompetition.org

THE 2014JOANN FALLETTAINTERNATIONAL

GUITAR CONCERTOCOMPETITION

Semi-finalsJune 4 & 5, 2014

solo performances

Finals June 7, 2014

with Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra directed by

Music Director JoAnn Falletta

Kleinhans Music Hall Buffalo, New York

JOANN FTHE 2

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ARTISTIC D& JOANNE CASTELLANI

June 7, 2014Finals

DIRECTORSMICHAEL ANDRIACCIO

Kleinhans Music Hall

solo performances

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me and he suggested that we do a version ofFratres. He told me to do an arrangement andthat then we would get together to discuss it.When we did get together, the first thing thatsurprised him was that he hadn’t realised Iwanted to do the violin part; there are manyversions of the piece. We met in a hotel inLondon. We went through it, he made somechanges, and that was it. Even though Fratresdoesn’t have baroque elements in it, it doeshave these modal harmonies that I thoughtwould fit in.

I decided to put the two Vivaldi concertos oneither side of Fratres, the Concerto in D major andthe Concerto in C major. Then I realised that thewhole recording had become like the ConciertoBarroco novel because it was combining newpieces with old pieces. Once I realised that, it allclicked, and I got really excited. That kind of thingreally turns me on; I really enjoy it. The ConciertoBarroco has been picked up as a set piece on oneof the guitar competitions. So the work now has alife of its own.

Have other guitarists been playing your arrange-ment of Fratres?I’m sure they have; Göran Söllscher told me he hasbeen playing it a lot. It’s a beautiful, beautiful piece.

And Vivaldi’s music is irresistible, isn’t it?I made the recording with the conductor VíctorPablo Pérez and the Orquesta Sinfónica deGalicia. I had my own ideas of how I wanted to doit, but then when I arrived there, either Víctor orthe concert master, who was Italian and knew alot about baroque performance practice, hadalready worked out what they wanted to do. Ithought their ideas were much better than myideas, so that is what we did. If you listen to thatrecording, I think it’s fair to say that it is full oflife. You often hear Vivaldi recordings, with a lackof energy – especially in the slow movementswhere the strings tend to sound like wallpaper –they are just there because they have been paid.But that isn’t how the Orquesta Sinfónica deGalicia sounded at all; and it is not a credit to me,it’s all credit to them.

I am very proud of that recording. I am happythat we have the version of the Arvo Pärt for theguitar, and the two pieces by Roberto Sierra aregoing to be a part of our repertoire, and the Vivaldiconcertos came out very well.

Roberto Sierra’s latest piece for you, Fantasía forguitar and string quartet, has moved forward to theclassical period for its inspiration in the work ofBoccherini. You have recently premièred it with theCuarteto Casals, could you tell me a little about it?Roberto Sierra had written a very imaginativepiece called Fandangos for orchestra which wasbased on Padre Antonio Soler’s famousFandango. Fandangos was such an effective workthat conductors like Leonard Slatkin and David

Zinman toured it. This led me to wonder what Sierra might do

with Boccherini’s cello quintet ‘La MusicaNotturna delle Strade di Madrid’. I asked him,and he liked the idea. The result is this new workcalled Fantasía sobre la Musica Notturna delleStrade di Madrid de Luigi Boccherini. It is a re-working of Boccherini’s work in Sierra’s own lan-guage, but always respecting the original materi-al, with all of its themes and dances present.

With your latest baroque recording, Chaconne – aBaroque Recital, you have returned to the baroquecompletely. And it has been 30 years or so sinceyour first Bach recording. Yes, this one has the Chaconne from the violinpartita by Bach, which is really the main reasonfor the recording – I wanted to record theChaconne again. It also has the suite by Weiss andfive Scarlatti sonatas. I was concerned that theWeiss would not stand up alongside the otherpieces but I think it does.

Have you transcribed the Scarlatti sonatas?Yes, but none of these are ones that I have donebefore.

You have published some Scarlatti transcriptions,haven’t you?Yes, of the ones that I had recorded before. On thisrecording I have done one of the Sonatas whichSegovia used to play in E minor. The last time Irecorded Scarlatti sonatas, I chose the ones that Ithought fitted the guitar but this time I chose onesthat I wanted to do because I liked the music.

So they might not be so easy for others to play?Well, that wasn’t the point, but they are more gui-taristic. I think the way I have been transcribingis a little more guitaristic.

Did you have to change their keys?Yes, with some of them.

How do you approach choosing the best key? First of all, I try not to change the key. One of thereasons that I don’t change the key is that I am

Manuel Barrueco.


too lazy to change the key. I did change the key,for example, in the Segovia one which was origi-nally in C minor and he played it in E minor.Another one was originally in E flat; it is obviousthat E flat is not going to work so well on the gui-tar. So I just changed the key signature and readit in E.

What about ornamentation? How did you approachthat?I hardly put in any at all except in the slowsonata. That’s not what this recording’s about. Atthis stage of my life, it is all about the beauty ofthe music, so if I am working on the piece and Ifeel that it should be ornamented, then I do it, butif I feel that it doesn’t need it, then I don’t do it.For me, it is just something that is at my dispos-al, if necessary. I’ll give you an example where Idid use it. I also play the first cello suite on thisrecording. In the last movement, the Gigue, I did-n’t feel that it was big enough, soI did some ornamentation thereto try to brighten up the move-ment and to make it more of anending to the suite.

Did you play that in D?Yes.

Did you add a lot of notes tothicken the texture?I added the right amount! No,seriously, I did what I thoughtwas right; something that I feltBach would have done if he weretranscribing it for the guitar.

One movement that I am reallytickled with, in the way that itcame out, was the Courante.When you listen to it there are acouple of moments, where I have moved the bassfrom the downbeat to the off-beat, and you willhear the effect. It is adorable the way the musiccame out.

You end the recording with the Chaconne. Let me explain something to you. I first playedthe Chaconne when I was about twelve years old.The music wasn’t available. After communismtook over in Cuba, you couldn’t find any music.The stores were empty and as is well known, Iadored Leo Brouwer and at that time, I wanted tobe just like him. I had heard a rumour that hehad learned to play the Chaconne when he wastwelve, so I managed to find a copy of theChaconne just before I turned twelve and that isall I had for breakfast, lunch and dinner, until theday before I turned twelve, so that I could saythat I did it, just like he did. Years later, I heardthat he had not started playing the guitar until hewas 15!

Anyway, it was really at an early age that I start-ed playing the Chaconne. Now that does not mean

that I played it well, and that does not mean thatI had any understanding of the piece. That justmeans that I could get through the notes so thatpeople would recognise it. I wanted to play it againand I don’t want to sound morbid, but I think I amat an age now where maybe I have reached fullmaturity. I don’t know when that is, but I imaginethat at some point I will begin to sound like an oldplayer. I don’t think I’m there yet; I don’t think I’msounding like an old player, in fact, I know I’mnot.

In my generation, we are sandwichedbetween the old people and the young peopleand we are saying goodbye to the old and wel-coming the new ones. And in losing peoplefrom my own life, it just changed the way I sawthe Chaconne: I found that the piece was talk-ing about loss and dealing with that, about lifeand death, about God or no God, about heavenand hell. When I was mourning the death of my

parents, what I was feeling andwhat I was hearing in themusic, were connecting witheach other so strongly, that forme that’s what the Chaconnebecame about. Then naturallyI became curious about whatwas going on in Bach’s life atthe time that he wrote thepiece and I found it was atombeau for his first wife thathe had lost. When I discoveredthis, it seemed to validate thefeeling that I had about it. Thatdoesn’t really change myunderstanding of the piece, itjust adds a different dimensionto it. Whatever I understoodabout the piece structurallyspeaking, of course hasn’t

changed. What changed is maybe just the com-plexity of the feelings or the nature of some ofthe feelings.

It gave me such an urge to record the pieceagain because I wanted to know if I was imag-ining what I was feeling as I was playing it. Andif I may say so, I do hear it in the playing. Ithink that my approach to the Chaconne willnot change any more, neither in the way I seeit nor in the arrangement; I think this is it.There is no place in the piece that I feel uncom-fortable or where I am unsure about what Iwant to do. I feel that it embodies a lifetime ofwork. Maybe it sounds melodramatic but it istruly how I feel.

You may have reached full maturity, but you arecertainly not slowly down in premièring new reper-toire. Performing the flamenco concerto, Medea byManolo Sanlúcar seems to be a completely newrepertoire direction. Do you feel that? Well, it is not really a ‘flamenco’ concerto, but itcertainly has lots of flamenco material and soul.

“Let me explainsomething to you.I first played theChaconne when Iwas about twelve

years old. Themusic wasn’t

available. After communismtook over in Cuba,you couldn’t find

any music.”


In the liner notes of the Medea CD, I described itas something like ‘flamenco dressed in tails’ andthat really sums it up for me! When I decided toplay it, I was not thinking whether or not it was anew direction. I fell in love with the music and Iwanted to have a relationship with it.

Your interpretation and transcriptions of the worksof Albéniz and Granados have always beenadmired. Do you feel that they are essentialBarrueco repertoire?Certainly this is repertoire that has always beenof extreme importance to me. Through the yearsI feel that I have gotten closer and closer to itsessence. These are compositions that havebecome an essential part of the repertoire of theguitar itself not only because of their beauty, butalso because they are the perfect vehicle for theguitar to show off some of its most seductivesounds.

Chaconne – A Baroque Recital (Tonar) andMedea – Spanish guitar music by Albéniz,Granados and Manolo Sanlúcar (Tonar)Manuel Barrueco with the TenerifeSymphony Orchestra conducted by VíctorPablo Pérez.


THROUGHOUT MY life as a teacher I havemet and encouraged two types of adultlearners. There are the children who takeup a musical instrument, give up after afew years and come back to learning inadult life, and then there are those whonever played as children and start to learnas adults.

Returning to play after many years doesnot mean starting all over again. Deep inyour mind and in your fingers is a memo-ry of your initial learning. Now as anadult learner you have the possibility touse your mature intelligence to pick upfrom where you left off and continue tobuild.

Starting to play from scratch as an adultis a different experience, especially if youhave never played a musical instrument.But here too you have the advantage of amature intelligence at your service.

For adult re-learners and beginners Iwould suggest bearing in mind the follow-ing:1. Why are you doing it? Be clear about what you are trying toachieve, since you are extremely unlikelyto become a virtuoso!2. What you can achieve You can become a fine musician and agood player.3. How you could feel: Your music and playing could and shouldgive you a lot of happiness, relaxationand fulfilment.

1. Why are you doing it? Just becauseyou can’t get your fingers round all the piecesyou would like to play doesn’t mean you can’tenjoy having a go and get lots out of it. FredJames, a great friend to me and my mentorwhen I was sixteen years old said something tome which I found difficult to understand at thetime, but which I have grown to admire:‘If something is worth doing, it is worth doingbadly’.This does not mean that you don’t try to play aswell as you can, but it does help you to under-stand your limitations and yet appreciate andcherish the fine piece of music you are trying toplay.

2. What you can achieve - with your curiosity,patience and determination can help you under-stand, analyse and appreciate music. This will

help you play more musically. You can improveyour reading skills so you can play in smallensembles and guitar orchestras. You couldeven turn your hand to arranging and compos-ing your own pieces.

3. How you could feel - a sense of fulfilmentand completion should come with you develop-ing your playing skills. This sense may havenothing to do with actually becoming a good gui-tarist, but everything to do with enquiring andexploring through your guitar-playing that greatuniverse – music itself.

This has been my rough guide guitar playingfor adult learners.

GUITAR PLAYING FOR ADULT LEARNERS

Three grown-up rules

By CARLOS BONELL

Carlos Bonell.PH

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First published at www.carlosbonell.com


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WHILE FESTIVALS devoted exclusively to theclassical guitar continue to prosper, the more

broad-based model celebrating the instrument’s manyforms has gained momentum over the past twentyyears. The Wirral International Guitar Festival, alsoknown as the International Guitar Festival of GreatBritain, is an early example that still survives and wasone of the finest during its 1990s heyday. A relativelyrecent arrival is Johannes Tonio Kreusch’s annualgathering in the Bavarian town of Hersbruck, which iswell into its second decade and remains firmly in theascendant.

In two out of my three past visits, the opening night hasbeen devoted to gypsy jazz. This time, it played host to aflamenco evening dramatically trailed as The SantiagoLara Grupo Meets Mercedes Ruiz. A skilled practitionerfrom the post-Paco de Lucia generation, Lara fieldedoriginal pieces that were based on traditional forms and,unusually for flamenco, listed on a printed programme.Dancer Mercedes Ruiz was a commanding presenceprompting thunderous applause, but the key ingredientcame from the more understated figure of Miguel A.

López. Billed as a pianist, López presided over an elec-tronic keyboard that was set up to emulate the Fender-Rhodes instruments of the 70s. This resulted in a smooth-ing of the edges on the gritty soundscape generated byLara and percussionist Perico Navarro. It may not delightevery aficionado, but the silkier jazz-rock ambience willdoubtless appeal to many.

Considering the modest proportions of Hersbruck towncentre, I have an embarrassingly consistent ability to getlost amid the winding streets leading to the Stadtkirche.Fortunately, festival tickets are too large to fit in the aver-age wallet, so it’s never hard to spot people heading forthe concert. Launching this year’s classical line-up wasthe husband and wife team of artistic director JohannesTonio Kreusch (guitar) and Doris Kreusch-Orsan (violin).Fielding Schubert’s Arpeggione Sonata and a sequence ofGranados Danzas Españolas, both were on outstandingform. A contemporary heavyweight dedicated to the duoby Nikolaus Brass (b.1949) made little impression eitherway on the first hearing, inevitably raising the question ofwhether or not we’ll hear it again. Works such as thisrarely get adopted by anyone other than the dedicatees.

The second half was occupied by the unique creativeforce that is Roland Dyens. After his customary warm-upimprovisation, Dyens served an eclectic mix of composi-tions and arrangements that further reinforced his statusas a premium grade guitarist and an individualist parexcellence. Nowhere was this latter quality more evident

Roland Dyens.

14TH HERSBRUCKINTERNATIONAL GUITAR FESTIVAL

17–24 August 2013By PAUL FOWLES

Johannes Tonio Kreusch and Doris Kreusch-Orsan.

Lawrence del Casale and Carlos Barbosa-Lima.

Registered numbers of the Charitable funds 310040 and 264303

● The 16th IVOR MAIRANTS GUITAR AWARD, administered by The Worshipful Company of Musicians, will take place in Londonon 28 March 2014.

● The competition will be conducted on ONE day.

● Prizes for the 16th Ivor Mairants Guitar Award have a value in excess of £4000 and include The Worshipful Company ofMusicians award of £1000 to be used by the competition winner for tuition in the field of playing jazz-influenced contemporarymusic on the classical guitar. The winner will also receive a Manuel Rodriguez guitar worth £1500, a £500 cash prize, and thecomplete Ediciones Joaquín Rodrigo guitar works. There will also be cash prizes of £300 for Second Prize and £200 for ThirdPrize. Additional prizes have been donated to the 2014 competition by the D'Addario Foundation for the Performing Arts,Manuel Rodriguez Guitars lntellitouch Tuners and Classical Guitar Magazine in recognition of lvor Mairants's unique contributionto the world of music. The prize winner will be invited to audition for the Musicians Company's 2015 London concerts.

● The 2014 winner may be offered concert recitals by some leading UK guitar societies.

● The non-refundable entrance fee for the competition is £15 to cover office and administration costs.

TERMS OF THE COMPETITION* Contestants must have been born on or after 1 January 1987. Guitarists of any nationality can enter the competition as longas they have been resident in the EU for at least 12 months and/or are currently enrolled in a UK conservatoire. Previousentrants, but not first prize winners, may take part.

* Contestants will have to play:

1) Ivor Mairants - Any work, or selected movement(s) from ‘Jazz Sonatas for Guitar’ (Mel Bay), of no more than five to seven minutes

This music book is available as a print on demand Mel Bay Archive book, available through Amazon or www.billsmusicshelf.com. ISBN0786679573

2) One only of the following complete works:

i) Vicente Asencio Suite Valenciana (Berbèn)ii) Stephen Dodgson Partita no.1 (Cadenza)iii) Hans Haug Prélude, Tiento et Toccata (Berbèn/Segovia Archive)iv) Frank Martin Quatre Pièces Brèves (Universal Edition)v) John McCabe Canto (Novello)vi) Joaquín Turina Sonata op.61 (Schott/ed.Segovia or Alvarez)

* Early application is highly recommended to ensure a place in the competition. Applications received after 25 February 2014will not be accepted. Contestants who wish to withdraw have to notify the Clerk of The Worshipful Company of Musicians nolater than one week before the competition. The entry fee will not be refunded under normal circumstances.

* Contestants bear full responsibility for travelling to, and accommodation in, London. Travel arrangements must not bemade until a place in the competition has been confirmed by the Clerk of the Musicians Company.

* The panel of judges will consist of not less than three internationally acknowledged adjudicators. The judges have theright not to award a prize, should there be no performance deserving of it. The decision of the judges is final and indisputable.The Musicians Company reserves the right to cancel the competition for any reason.

* Music for the set pieces for the 16th Ivor Mairants Guitar Award is available from most classicalguitar centres. In case of difficulty it is usually available from www.FretsOnly.com

1998 Amanda Cook (UK)1999 Hayley Savage (UK)2000 Xuefei Yang (China)2001 Milos Karadaglic (Montenegro)2002 Jorgen Skogmo (Norway)

2003 Carl Herring (UK)2004 Luis Leite (Brazil)2005 Dimitrios Dekavallas (Greece)2006 Nicolas Papin (France)2007 Fabricio Mattos (Brazil)

2008 Sanja Plohl (Slovenia)2009 Sean Shibe (UK)2011 Manus Noble (UK)2012 Francesco Scelzo (Italy)2013 Armen Doneyan (France)

IVOR MAIRANTSGUITAR AWARD

Previous Ivor Mairants Guitar Award Winners

* Application forms for entry to the competition can be obtained by emailing the Clerk [email protected] address for the return of completed applications will be notified by email.The deadline for the receipt of these is 25 February 2014. Contestants must provide a copy of their birthcertificate with their application, and a reference from a recognised music college or teacher to confirm theirperformance ability.

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than in his ensuing masterclass, in which several sessionsculminated in an impromptu Dyens recital, including thewhole of his jazzed-up reworking of Chôros No.1 by Villa-Lobos. An unusual didactic approach, but judging by thenumerous spontaneous ovations, one to which few object-ed.

This was just one aspect of an instructional programmetaking place at the AOK conference centre that has longbeen the home of daytime activities. Of particular interestwere the morning lectures by Argentine lutenist EduardoEgüez, who sadly wasn’t giving a concert this year but tri-umphantly nailed the vexed issue of what those commasin meantone temperament actually do.

A revered figure whose career path has differed fromthat of any of his peers is Carlos Barbosa-Lima. A classi-cal guitarist of the highest rank and dedicatee of theGinastera Sonata, Barbosa-Lima has from the 80sonwards increasingly turned his attention towards theupmarket traditional and popular music of his nativeBrazil. So it was that this unassuming icon, in the compa-ny of his tried and trusted running mate Lawrence delCasale, enjoyed a compelling innings in which Villa-Loboswas present but Jobim scooped the most credits.

Sharing this Latin double bill were guitarist Ahmed ElSalamouny and percussionist Mauro Martins. Neither waspreviously known to me, but both soon established them-selves as masters of bossa nova and beyond. Informalitywas the order of the day, Martins having already takenpart in a late-night jam with fingerstyle maestro AdamRafferty, whose scheduled appearance was still to come.

The absence of any drums in the AOK bar had proved nohindrance, Martins cheerfully making do with a table andempty bottles.

Our annual excursion to the establishment trading asthe Dauphin Speed Event was slightly marred by the factthat I’d left it too late to arrange a viewing of the incred-ible collection of classic motor cars residing on thepremises. But there was only a glass screen between meand one of the Bugattis when a packed auditorium wasgreeted by the arrival on stage of Manuel Barrueco. Bachhas long been a Barrueco stronghold and his approach hasalways held much personal appeal, largely due to theunderstated embellishments and discernible preferencefor the single-string variety. Tonight, all was flowing withconsummate assurance in Cello Suite No.1 when, to theastonishment of me and others, the second Minuet was allbut floored by the most colossal memory lapse I’ve everwitnessed from an artist of this standing. Most alarmingwas the time taken to get out of the hole, a situation com-

Adam Rafferty and Mauro Martins.Peppino D'Agostino and Carlos Barbosa-Lima.

Robert Ilg (Burgermeister), Peppino D'Agostino and Johannes Tonio Kreusch. Santiago Lara.


pounded by a questionable decision to take on the repeatonly to revisit the same snag. Mercifully, it was a one-off,the second half finding our man firing on all cylindersagain, especially in Turina’s evergreen Sonata Op.61.

As was noted in the 2011 Hersbruck report (CG Feb2012), the term ‘fingerstyle’ has over the past half centu-ry morphed from being a reference to classical and possi-bly flamenco players into its present role representing asub-category of acoustic guitarists from folk, rock or bluesbackgrounds, mostly performing on metal strings. One sig-nificant exception is Michael Langer, whose preferencefor nylon strings is well-documented. Occupying the firstslot in a tripartite package, the whole of Langer’s set waspresented in the company of his long-standing partnerSabine Ramusch. An able guitarist in her own right, itseems Ramusch’s influence has turned Langer more in thedirection of the lyrical. The results are pleasing, althoughI suspect I wouldn’t have been alone in welcoming a fewvintage Langer solos as part of the deal.

Next up was the puckish figure of Adam Rafferty, whosehomes in New York and Austria make him an emergingpresence on both sides of the Atlantic. Audience partici-pation usually has me diving for the exit, but Rafferty’sinsistence that we all provided backing vocals for MichaelJackson’s Billie Jean succeeded by virtue of being so deli-

ciously and unapologetically daft. However, Rafferty theentertainer is only one aspect of his art, the original com-positions interspersed with the funnies revealing a multi-faceted musician well worth discovering.

This left Italian-American guitarist Peppino D’Agostinowith a difficult act to follow, a situation he handledadmirably by serving several extended offerings beforeuttering a word. The policy of ‘music first, break the icelater’ proved successful, largely because the rich texturesof D’Agostino’s writing gave us much to absorb. After anevening of excellence from all that contributed, PeppinoD’Agostino is the one I’d most like to see again.

Pepe Romero is arguably the most influential memberof one of the guitar’s most distinguished dynasties. An oldschool figure in the most positive sense of the term,Romero’s exclusively Hispanic agenda took us from Sanzarrangements, just the way they used to be, right up to theflamenco-inspired crowd pleasers of Celedonio Romero(1913-96), whose place in history is assured as the patri-arch behind the Romero phenomenon. Apart from a fewanxious moments at the start of the second half,Celedonio’s celebrated son was in command throughoutand richly deserved the lavish reception from a crowd notfar short of 700. I can’t say how many encores wereoffered because I was anxiously waiting backstage tocatch a photo before setting sail for the City of DerryGuitar Festival, to be reported elsewhere in CG. So I’mnot going to pretend I wasn’t seriously chuffed whenRomero, who I’ve met on only one previous occasion(Aalborg 2007), recognised me instantly and thenpatiently smiled for the camera. A world star and a truegentleman.

The overlap with Derry deprived me of a closingnight featuring the jazz trio fronted by pianistCornelius Claudio Kreusch, brother of Johannes, butI’m assured it was another sell-out at the same 700-seat gymnasium. Johannes and his team have much tobe pleased about, as does Herr Robert Ilg who, in hiscapacity as Bürgermeister of Hersbruck, was presentalmost every evening to wish us Herzlich Willkommen.Welcome we most certainly were, the hospitality andcamaraderie at Hersbruck being unsurpassed in myexperience. Even the beer that bears the town’s name,which I once unkindly described as tasting like a rogueconsignment of counterfeit Lucozade, is starting togrow on me.

Sabine Ramusch and Michael Langer.

Manuel Barrueco.

Pepe Romero and Johannes Tonio Kreusch.


AS A magazine dedicated to a single subject, it isoverlooked that we focus on the content rather thancontext of our subject. That is to say we pay a lot ofattention to the actual instrument itself and theissues immediately connected to it, namely its play-ers and music. This is perfectly understandable,since the things that interest us most with a musi-cal instrument are inevitably close to the source.

There have been opportunities, however, to exam-ine more removed aspects of our world. It was whileconsidering such an article that the idea of perfor-mance context occurred. Where is the instrumentcurrently being played, and in what setting? Who islistening, and what do they think? Giving thesequestions more thought, it seemed this topic wasn’tsatellite to the classical guitar. Rather, it is a matterthat goes straight to the heart of the instrument.

Surprisingly, there are few occasions when theclassical guitar is performed in a sufficiently differ-ing context to give rise to any of these questions. Thelistening demographic for classical guitar tends to bethe same as it is for classical music in general:white, male, middle-aged and middle-class. At least,this is the situation according to writers on the sub-ject including the American music critic Alex Ross,author of the seminal text The Rest is Noise. Andwith the exception of the large concert hall, the clas-sical guitar is found in the same performance spacesas other instruments (though many performerswould disagree with this, the evidence suggests oth-erwise). The difference is that the guitar has thegreatest scope for being heard elsewhere. No instru-ment is so widely understood by the general publicbecause it is so strongly identified with popular cul-ture. This gives the guitar a huge advantage.

This article might not have come about at all hadit of not been for an invitation to a performance puton by music promoters Sofar Sounds. Songs From ARoom (Sofar) produces live musical performances indozens of cities around the world. The company wasstarted four years ago in response to a perceivedlack of respect for live performance. Talking, texting,and a general inability to concentrate and listen tomusic properly in live settings were the problems, soit was decided among a group of individuals thatthey should address the situation. The solution wasto put on gigs in people’s homes, with a select groupof people who were dedicated to the experience of lis-tening to live performance. Today, thousands of per-formers have passed through their doors.

So exactly how does Sofar work? Based on theconcert I attended in Wood Green, London, the com-pany curates ‘secret gigs’ held in private homes. Theproperty on this occasion belonged to two Sofa sup-porters who had performed for the company on aprevious occasion. After securing a ticket, details of

the address are sent out, but there is no informationon who is performing or what they will be playing.The structure of the event is normally four acts play-ing four songs each (or 20 minutes platform time).There is no headline act, and the running order inno way reflects hierarchy. Everyone is asked remainfor all performances to support this principle.

Among the performers on this occasion was Italianclassical guitar player Elena Zucchini, who beganliving and working in London during 2010.Following two folk-duo sets, the curator stepped into announce Zuchini as the next performer. His firstpoint was that Sofa does not prejudice against styleor genre, and then he centred what remained of hisspeech on apparently defending the classical gui-tar’s place that evening. This was interesting initself, since I hadn’t experienced the classical guitaroutside the context of people who knew what it wasfor some time.

The first instance of friction here was the under-standing that the performer was about to playmusic not of her own creation: an obvious aspect ofclassical music easily overlooked when drawingcomparisons with popular music models. Thenthere was the sudden contrast in stage presence: aperformer who sits with the instrument resting onthe left leg, who plays quietly (relatively), and so on.These are observations made from one side of thefence. What of the performer’s impression of thoseshe was playing to? ‘The experience was completelydifferent to every concert I have done’, saysZucchini. ‘You felt like the people were there becausethey wanted to just listen to good music, not a clas-sical guitar player necessarily. When I go to classicalguitar concerts at a festival, I feel a lot of tensioneven when I am not performing. I am as worried forthose performing as I would be for myself. But thiswas different, enjoyable’. Certainly, it must havebeen novel performing to a small group of casuallydressed East Londoner’s in their 20s and 30s, sat onthe floor at arm’s distance in a stranger’s livingroom.

But despite all the apparent obstacles the eveningmight have had, I can’t really remember a time whenclassical guitar was so exciting. We place a lot ofemphasis on analysing the content of performancewhen attempting to justify its lack of popularity. Butperhaps we are looking at things in the wrong way.Today the level of players graduating from musiccolleges is high enough to represent the instru-ment’s repertoire faithfully and accurately. We arealso much more aware of musical style in the wakeof this technical focus. In other words, the classicalguitar world seems to have a lot going for it in termsof musical content, so perhaps the context is whereit is lacking.

MUSIC MATTERSThe Context of Performance

By GUY TRAVISS


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I’M TRYING to avoid the cliché thatfestivals, like buses, arrive two or

more at a time. But the overlapbetween Hersbruck and Derry hasbecome a regular logistical challengewhich last year ended in defeat. So Iwon’t pretend I wasn’t relieved whenKLM deposited me in Amsterdamtwenty minutes early, ensuring I’dmake it to Liverpool in ample time forthe Ryanair shuttle. More good newsawaited me at the North WestRegional College, where CDGF direc-tor Sean Woods and flautist SarahMurphy were due on stage at 8.00pm.All seats in the bar were occupied,and spaces in the auditorium were farfrom plentiful. Audience figures hadrisen for the second year in a row, atriumph that couldn’t have happenedto a more decent bunch of people.

A latecomer to music after a success-ful career in construction, Woods stillapproaches his task with the zeal of a fresh convert. InSarah Murphy, he has found the ideal collaborator, hertidy and understated melodic lines remaining ever sympa-thetic to the fact that the accompaniment emanates froman instrument with much colour but limited clout. Equallyrewarding was the choice of material, an unashamedlymiddlebrow policy reminding us that there’s still plentyjuice in such stalwarts as the Fauré Pavane and the IbertEntr’acte. But the finest treasures of all were in the ori-ental imagery of Haru No Umi by Michio Miyagi, a 1929composition originally for koto and shakuhachi whose titleapparently translates as ‘the sea in spring’.

After the interval, the youthful and highly accomplishedBenyounes String Quartet delivered an engaging account

of Dvorak’s F major ‘American’ Quartet before beingjoined by Sean Woods for the cheery and tuneful Concertoin D by Vivaldi. With the best will in the world, this didn’tfind Woods on his best form, a situation the man himselfexpressed in robust language during an after-hours con-versation. He also revealed, more by way of apology thanexplanation, that he’d recently been diagnosed withcarpel tunnel syndrome but was optimistic about dealingwith this debilitating condition, as other musicians havemanaged to do in the past.

Two Dublin-based guitarists whose shared programmehad taken place while I was still in transit were PatColdrick (classical) and John Walsh (flamenco). But sinceboth were central to the CDGF teaching programme, Ihad plenty opportunities to witness them in action.

Coldrick, who was interviewed in CG Sept 2012, is aunique performer/composer/arranger whose sound systemaccompanies him everywhere, even to his own master-classes. Using a setting that creates much sustain and ametallic but by no means unattractive tone with whatColdrick describes as a ‘slight bloom’ after the note, thisis the kind of non-acoustic soundscape that has puristsreaching for the smelling salts. I immediately warmed toit, the first few bars of the Williams solo arrangement ofCavatina establishing there’s much to discover. For possi-bly the first time ever, the request every restaurant gui-tarist dreads sounded like more than just a two guitarcomposition crammed onto one. But the main potentiallies in Coldrick’s original works, an MP3 demo of the epicAntarctica that landed in my inbox the following weekgiving a tantalising taste of what promises to be a ground-breaking whole.

CITY OF DERRY GUITAR FESTIVAL

22 - 25 August 2013By PAUL FOWLES

John Walsh.

Benyounes Quartet and Sean Woods.


John Walsh is a prime example of a non-Spanish guitaristwho has put time and toil into absorbing the skills and com-plexities of flamenco as a ‘second language’. Equally note-worthy was his approach to teaching. For many a pedagogue,the mention of lunch is reason to down tools in mid-sentence.For Walsh, it’s merely a signal to plough on for another fif-teen minutes while the fish fingers go cold. No studentshowed the slightest inclination towards making an earlydeparture. Small wonder that Sean’s already got Walsh ear-marked for next year’s CDGF.

Like many an Englishman who barely scraped through ‘O’level French, I’m easily humbled by linguistic prowess. Butfor Tatyana Ryzhkova, born less than three decades ago inBelarus and now living in Germany, to conduct the CDGFensemble rehearsals in fluent and idiomatic English certain-ly merits honourable mention. Commissioned for the occa-sion, The Spirit of Lough Foyle by Paul Coles proved anengaging slice of mid-range student repertoire from a com-poser whose past offerings for guitar have left me somewhatunderwhelmed.

In her evening recital, Ryzhkova emerged as an able soloperformer with that all-important capacity to cover the occa-sional blemishes without missing a beat. The only exceptionwas the omission of a whole eight-bar section in CaprichoArabe, a presumably unplanned piece of surgery that didmuch to reduce the suffering in what has become my leastfavourite piece for any instrument. Then came two self-

penned songs Ryzhkova sang to her own rather rudimentaryguitar accompaniments. I can’t comment on the poetic meritof the Russian lyrics, but I’m afraid the folksy-pop musicalcontent reached Eurovision level at best. If TatyanaRyzhkova is to be taken seriously as a classical guitarist, it’sundoubtedly best to keep the vocal items as encores or ditchthem altogether. Elsewhere, there was much to enjoy inRyzhkova’s playing, an Albéniz Zambra that turned out not tobe the familiar Zambra Granadina proving her finest hour.

After the interval, the stage was taken by a gentleman I’dpreviously seen in the coffee bar performing the Chaconneusing non-classical techniques with disarmingly convincingresults. This was Celtic folk guitarist Tony McManus, who I’dpreviously recognised as a name but not as a face. Presentinga carefully blended mix of songs, instrumentals and stories,McManus was the consummate professional, his darkly com-pelling take on the politically-charged Pharaoh by RichardThompson re-connecting us with a folk club anthem of yearsgone by. As for McManus’ forays into classical guitar, they’recaptured on a 2013 CD titled Mysterious Boundaries.Approach it with an open mind, and the rewards are consid-erable.

After late-night celebrations at Derry’s incomparableMandarin Palace restaurant, all that remained was to show-case the weekend’s labours in the final student concert.Members of the Classical Guitar Society of NorthernIreland, who have supported the CDGF since its inception,contributed generously. Also present was a young lady fromLiverpool, whose newly-minted song about events at a rail-way station in Sacramento had one of those instant hooksyou can’t forget no matter how hard you try. Last to appearwere half a dozen adolescent rockers who had been explor-ing the Thin Lizzy legacy under the expert guidance of TedLynch. The valedictory Whisky in the Jar even gave me anexcuse to exhume the worst joke in almost sixty years of theManchester Guitar Circle. Some time ago, we had a ratherloquacious member, affectionately known as ‘Talking Terry’.It was only a matter of time before someone pointed out thatThin Lizzy had recorded a song about him:

As I was goin’ overThe Talkin’ Terry mountains

The individual responsible knows who he is...

Tatyana Ryzhkova. Sean Woods and Sarah Murphy.

Tony McManus.

Pat Coldrick.


USA

HARRIS BECKER, who established the LongIsland Guitar Festival 21 years ago, is not yourordinary impresario. Soft-spoken and low-key,what strikes one immediately about him is hissincerity. The Long Island Guitar Festival is heldin the spring on Long Island’s beautiful NorthShore, with intimate recitals in the Great Hall,concerts in the larger modern theatres atHillwood Commons, and a winding drive pastorchards and stables leads to the masterclassesat the Fine Arts Center.

A staunch proponent of new works, Becker isjustifiably proud that the Festival has been thelaunch pad for world première compositions.Becker’s vision was enthusiastically embraced byGyan Riley: ‘I wanted to do some things tonightthat were brand new. It’s fun to put togetherideas that are fresh for me.’ Riley presented abold and highly innovative programme, pepperedwith loops and harmonics, cross-string trills and‘trill-melo’ and a series of technically challengingétudes. ‘I had to make music that I felt so strong-ly about and that would make me grow as amusician.’ After his extraordinary concert in theGreat Hall, Riley was mobbed by teenagers beg-ging for an autograph and a photo.

Another world première was Mourning Mist,an elegiac work for guitar and string quartet.The composer Joseph Russo attended the pre-mière on 20 March 2013, and spoke of its his-tory, and the emotion of hearing it performedfor the first time: ‘In April 2008 my fatherpassed away; about a month after his passing Ibegan work on Mourning Mist. The musichelped me grieve and arrive at a peaceful placeconcerning my father’s death. My father lovedthe sound of the guitar. I usually reach out toexcellent musicians who may be interested inperforming my music, and I did so with Harris.He expressed an interest in programming theworld première of the work during his LongIsland Guitar Festival. So, Mourning Mist notonly created a way for me to grieve for myfather’s passing, but it also created my friend-ship and collaboration with Harris.’

The Eden Stell Guitar Duo performed a pro-gramme of baroque and tango balanced with anastounding new piece written for them. WhenBuds are Breaking by Johannes Möller wasinspired by the glass sculptures of Dale Chihuly,and in their hands, every bit as colourful, fragileand intensely stirring as the work that it reflects.

In a standing-room only performance, JohnWilliams and John Etheridge opened the Festivalwith an unforgettable programme titled ‘Togetherand Solo’, which highlighted the finest aspects ofthese two grand masters: Williams’ playing wascrystalline moonlight, precise and strongly

Views from Everywhere

From left: Harris Becker, Mark Eden, William Kanengiser and Chris Stell.

Gyan Riley.

William Kanengiser, Harris Becker, Christopher Perez and the

Freedom High School Guitar Orchestra.


defined, in contrast with Etheridge’s warm sun-light, blazing and bold.

Ludwig’s Horse, created for the duo by PaulHart, allowed them to shine, and it was evidentthat they thoroughly enjoyed themselves. Withechoes of Spain in the first movement andCopeland in the second, Williams playing thethunderous rock-steady hoof beat with Etheridgegiving way to freewheeling wild grace.

This was Williams’ first time visiting LongIsland, however, it was a long-overdue return tripfor Etheridge, who fondly reminisced about play-ing a short distance away (at My Father’s Place)as a young sideman for Stéphane Grappelli.

William Kanengiser’s programme was intenselyromantic, with deep-running themes of love, fam-ily and loss. Kanengiser was very open and gra-cious, spontaneously giving technical advice toplayers who met him in the lobby, and engagingfestival attendees in thoughtful conversation.‘The guitar is capable of so many different soundsand different styles, it’s incumbent upon us toexplore those and not limit ourselves.’

Education is an integral part of Becker’s visionfor the Festival, and student ensembles areprominently featured, giving young high school-and college-aged musicians an important venuein which to perform. Guitarists from BrentwoodHigh School, LIU/Post and Stony BrookUniversity regularly appear at the Festival, and in2013, the Freedom High School Guitar Orchestrafrom Orlando, FL made an impressive appear-ance. Program Director Christopher Perez spokeof the advanced growth of his guitar program intoan All-State group, and how it reached Becker’sattention. Becker felt that the orchestra wasready to participate in the Festival, and flew toFlorida to observe them and give masterclasses.In addition to being immersed in everything theFestival offered, the Florida kids saw snow for thefirst time, much to the delight of the frost-bittenNew Yorkers.

Kanengiser looked forward to holding a master-class the morning following his concert: ‘I loveteaching. I love working with students because Ialways learn a lot from them.’

‘I had a fun masterclass!’ said Gyan Riley. ‘Itwas great to hear kids bring their own spirit topieces. You have to be on top of your game to givethe kids something that will help them – to givethem something of value that they can take away,and to be positive and encouraging.’

After his impressive concert, Matt Palmer, theyoung master with facility and fiery speed, held aworkshop teaching a variety of blazing tech-niques: flamenco, electric guitar and AMI finger-ings.

Spanish guitar master Dennis Koster’s appear-ance completed a personal circle for the Festival.Koster was visibly proud of his long-ago youngguitar student Becker, whose 21-year run withthe Festival is highly unusual in any facet ofmusic. Koster presented a workshop of flamenco

techniques for the classical guitar prior to hisconcert, which was the finale of the Festival.

Sharing Becker’s vision is former student andAssistant Festival Director James Erickson. A tal-ented instrumentalist, Erickson performs as amember of the Artesian Guitar Quartet. This yearwas the 15th year that he has been involved withthe guitar festival. Erickson has been presentingan ‘Electric Guitar Techniques’ workshop since2009. ‘I also really like the Emerging ArtistSeries. It’s really exciting to see the next genera-tion of classical guitarists perform at the outset oftheir careers,’ Erickson said.

The Festival has had an important impact onmany of the people who attend. Fingerstyle gui-tarist Bob spent 40 years playing folk, rock andblues. On a whim, he accompanied a friend to seeDusan Bogdanovic at the 2003 Festival. Bob wasoverheard telling Becker ‘this festival changed mylife. I had never heard anything like what heplayed, and it opened a whole other side of theguitar that I had no idea existed. I scheduled myvacation to coincide with the Festival each year soI could attend as many events as possible.’ Anémigré from Warsaw, Tadeusz has been living forsome years in Manhattan. After discovering theFestival last year, he was inspired to take up clas-sical guitar. This year, Tadeusz attended eachevent, workshop and concert, and went back toNYC with an armload of sheet music. Nina fromSan Francisco can be seen each year at theFestival, wielding her camera and documentingeach Festival. Classical Guitar Society membersDave and Rich both make the daily hour-plusdrive each way from eastern Long Island to theFestival site, eagerly immersing themselves in theworkshops, masterclasses and concerts.

Each year, the Classical Guitar Society of LongIsland holds its monthly meeting on the last dayof the festival. In 2013, guitarist Lyle Sheffler wasvisiting from San Francisco, and gave a splendidshort performance during the Society’s opentime.

www.liu.edu/gfest

Amy Tuttle

SWITZERLAND

From 2-6 October 2013 the Music Academy ofBasel in north-west Switzerland hosted a festivalof lute and guitar – Basel Plucks – celebrating notonly the fascination that the plucked sound hashad for musicians and their audiences over cen-turies but also recognising the unique characterof the small but very active city of Basel, where allthese musicians of international repute arebased. For these musicians, living directly on theFrench and German borders of Switzerland,crossing borders is simply an accepted part ofeveryday life. The concept of ‘Basel Plucks’ wasinitiated and brought to fruition by the lutenist,


guitarist and author Peter Croton. The five-dayprogramme consisted of an eclectic mixture oflectures, masterclasses and concerts. Eachevening the audiences were presented with twoconcerts, imaginatively chosen to bring out con-trasts in instruments and musical styles betweenlutes and guitars in their various incarnations,with even short excursions in the direction ofsitar (Ken Zuckerman, Sanju Dahai) and electricguitar (Fred Frith)!

The scene was set by an informative and enter-tainingly illustrated talk by Anthony Rooley: ‘Topluck or not to pluck, what is the question?’which outlined the development of pluckedinstruments from earliest times, and the fascina-tion that their sound has had for mankind,‘plucking at our heartstrings’. During the weekthe lecture series also examined lute design(Jorge Sentiero, Anthony Bailes) and introducedhow to approach figured bass on the classicalguitar (Peter Croton). Dr Martin Kirnbauer, cura-tor of musical instruments of the Basel MusicMuseum, presented a unique selection of historicinstruments, including a richly decorated guitarof 1819 by Louis Pons, gifted by the future QueenCaroline, consort of King George IV, to the ItalianGeneral Domenico Pino.

The concert series commenced with a wonder-fully moving tribute to lute music by the sopranoEvelyn Tubb accompanied by Anthony Rooleyand Ziv Braha. Later in the week CrawfordYoung’s lute recital was set beside StephanSchmidt’s concert, performed on five guitars, aprogramme ranging from Dowland Fantasies,through Fernando Sor’s Gran Solo Op. 14 playedon a French romantic guitar (Lacote, 1826) toMaurice Ohana’s Si le jour paraît for 10-stringguitar (1963).

Peter Croton presented a fascinating concert oflute music of the Italian and German Baroque forliuto attorbiato, which contrasted perfectly withPaul Galbraith’s 8-string guitar, played in hisnow familiar cellist’s posture. Paul gave a movinginterpretation of Ponce’s Variations and Fugue onLas Folias de España.

Anthony Bailes delighted the audience with abeautifully played programme of rhythmic and

melodic Austro-Bohemian lute music. This wasfollowed by a masterful performance on conven-tional 6-string guitar by Pablo Márquez, includ-ing the Swiss première of Zad Moultaka’sintensely moving and inventive Calvario pourguitar et sons fixées, which fully exploited theemotional possibilities of the modern classicalguitar.

Hopkinson Smith’s virtuoso interpretation ofearly 17th-century music for renaissance lutecontrasted well with Anders Miolin’s programmefor the 13-string Chiavi-Miolin guitar (2003),which showed off the instrument’s five-octaverange to great effect.

During the week, two concerts of a particular-ly high standard by lute and guitar students ofBasel’s Hochschule für Musik demonstratedthat the future of plucked instruments is verywell assured in this corner of Europe! In one ofhis masterclasses, Hopkinson Smith had evenhumorously suggested that, since guitaristsplayed so many transcriptions of lute music,perhaps by the end of the week one or two mighteven consider cutting their fingernails and try-ing out the lute!

Artistic Director Peter Croton was delightedwith the response from students of the master-classes, with the full houses of appreciative andknowledgeable audiences, and with the warmreception of lutenists for guitarists and viceversa, truly ‘across the borders’. ‘For me it wasa unique experience to hear all these high-levelconcerts on diverse plucked instruments, pre-senting a wide range of repertoires’, said Peter.‘The fact that all the musicians either live orteach in the Basel area also lent an extraordi-nary quality to the event; it felt like a “festival offriends”, where the performers and listeners, insharing a common experience, embraced eachother in an atmosphere of exhilaration and pro-found appreciation.’

The organizers of ‘Basel Plucks’ are to be con-gratulated for successfully trying out an innova-tive approach, which we hope will attract audi-ences from across many more borders in thefuture!

Tom McClymont

Stephan Schmidt. Paul Galbraith. Hopkinson Smith.


CHANGES APPEAR to be happening at WestDean. The most immediate difference was the

change in the festival’s Artistic Direction. JohnMills has now stepped down as Director, and hasbeen replaced by Andrew Gough. For West Deanregulars this change is a fitting one, since Goughhas been both a student and teacher at the festivalbefore his latest appointment. In the programmeGough writes, ‘who would have thought it possiblethat a chance meeting with Barry Mason at hisSpanish Guitar Centre in 1995 would have led meto become the director of the same festival eigh-teen years later?’ Of course, Barry Mason was theman in charge of the West Dean College courseduring the 90s, and John Mills succeeded him. Thiswas the first year for Mills to be absent since thattime, and his presence was greatly missed. Weacknowledge his great contribution to this festival,as we do Barry Mason before him. And while theroll call of name dominates this first paragraph, weshould also give thanks to the work of festivalcoordinator Marcus Martin, and to the generoussponsorship provided by the D’Addario foundation.

In addition to changes in management, there was also aperceptible difference in clientele. West Dean now seems tobe attracting new students, though the core body of regularshas not changed in this its 22nd year. The latest influx of gui-tarists is all young players, which is fantastic to see. This isthe result of the festival’s collaboration with the West SussexGuitar Society, which is led by another long-time West Deansupport Sasha Levtov. Levtov’s dedication to teaching guitarat the early stages has resulted in a new crop of promisingyoung players who now hone their skills alongside the cast of

international performers and teach-ers presented at this festival. Thesestudents attend the festival on aspecial bursary for 18-24-year-olds.This was made possible by the high-ly successful raffle and subsequentauction in 2012 of a guitar made byManuel Rodriguez.

The international cast of per-formers named above refers toXuefei Yang, Fabio Zanon, the VidaGuitar Quartet and JohannesMoller. Each performed in the col-lege’s adjoining church, which mostnow seem to agree is the best per-formance space (the Sussex Barnbeing the alternative). In addition,Jardan Duncumb, a finalist in theBBC young musician of the yearcontest, gave a lunchtime concertsponsored by The Classical Guitar

22ND WEST DEANINTERNATIONAL

FESTIVAL AND SUMMER SCHOOL

By GUY TRAVISS

Andrew Gough addresses particpants for the first time as Festival Director

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Anrne Brattland (Front Left) with his student guitar ensemble.


Centre, Birmingham. Brian Whitehouse runs this music cen-ter, and it is he who has been behind the promotion of the ris-ing performer.

Xuefei Yang presented a programme on the opening nightthat showed a certain kind of development in her approachto performance. From her time as a child prodigy, through toher recording contract with EMI, Yang has had to be respon-sive to a certain kind of audience. But now she has enteredinto a new phase of her career, one that gives her much morefreedom of choice as an established player. In many ways thisis the most interesting time to hear a player in Yang’s posi-tion, since they have honed their skills on a repertoire aboutwhich they have made very informed decision to perform.This concert came with the Britten Nocturnal, BachChaconne and Henze among others. This shift to a more high-brow format demonstrated Yang’s potential for a new identi-ty, and it will be very interesting to see what the next fewyears will do for her.

As in previous years, the Sunday following the opening con-cert was marked for the Open Day. Sunday’s activities weredivided between three sites. The Sussex Barn auditoriumshowcased NYGE (National Youth Guitar Ensemble).Founded in 1999, the ensemble offers the highest standardof ensemble training within the UK for young aspiring gui-tarists aged 13 – 18. Over the years it has performed withmany leading players, John Williams among them. The OldLibrary played host to Yang’s masterclass, which was an obvi-ous draw for participants. But, as with so many events of theirkind, nothing seems to bring in a crowd like a guitar-makershowcase, which this year featured Norwegian guitarist Arne

Brattland demonstrating instruments. In an industry definedby subjective judgment, it’s always nice to see experimentsthat introduce a scientific control, such as having one playerperform a number of guitars in order to learn which onerates well. I think it is this, coupled with the fact that themain tool for guitarists is of course of the instrument, makesthese events an attractive activity at festivals.

Fabio Zanon has a history with West Dean, and he wasparticularly welcomed this year because of that association.Zanon is a visiting professor at the Royal Academy of Music,so has occasion to visit the UK from Brazil other than con-certs. As a tutor, Zanon offers the complete package, andWest Deaners will have benefited from his highly intuitiveand informed approach to musical study. This was particu-larly true during his masterclass sessions, in which Zanonreally shows his intellectual rigour. It is because of traits likethese that concerts by this performer come with great antic-ipation.

Another key didactic feature of this festival is the lectureseries variously known as the Learning Zone. As in previousyears, Gerald Garcia and Alison Bendy led talks, and partici-pants were also shown an insight into Johannes Moller’scompositional ideals in a class entitles The Universal Ear.Moller has very clear and specific ideas on the formation ofmusic, and he pertains to organic and universal theories onthe phenomenon. This, in itself, always makes his musicaltalks informative and entertaining.

According to the programme, the Vida Quartet was at thefestival by popular demand. Since they have not played atthe event before, not collectively at least, it can only meanthat news of there activity has travelled fast. The ensemblecurrently records for the BGS record label, and currentlypromotes works by Britten, Malcolm Arnold, Gershwin,Adam Gorb and David Critten. Vida are a relatively new out-fit, but have developed a sense of ensemble that is typical ofa much more established group. This is for the most partprobably due to the fact that each player has performed inconjunction with the others in some way (particularly MarkEden and Chris Stell) so organic unity has been building forsome time here. Their concert was particularly noteworthyfor the Gershwin arrangement, which the work’s arranger,Chris Stell, spoke some words about before the perfor-mance. Commissioned in 1924, George Gershwin’s iconicRhapsody in Blue remains a firm favourite in concert hallsall over the world. It’s a huge undertaking to arrange this for

Marcus Martin,West Dean music course director. Johannes Moller in concert.

Xuefei Yang performs the opening concert.

Fabio Zanon teachers in the old library.


four guitars, but the result is certainly work hearing if youget the opportunity.

Johannes Moller. His was a name that I had not heard forsome months, and I was delighted that he would be at thefestival. The occasion I had to hear him last was as finalist inthe GFA competition the year he won first prize. Since thenI’d heard his playing had gone from strength to strength, andthis concert really showed what the critics had claimed to betrue. Moller is another modern example of the traditionalcomposer/performer figure. This musical profile is highlyadvantage to the modern player for its standout quality, butit is a difficult role, and few manage it successfully. But, asGary Ryan did before Moller at this same church in recentyears, Moller managed a concert featuring his own music forthe majority. Compositionally, his music is accessible, andhighly connected to times and places about which the per-former explains in great details. During his concerts one feelsthe guitar is in safe hands for the future.

It’s easy to forget that between all this activity followswhat the students are there to do. I have written before thatunlike other festivals, West Dean is more of a practicalcourse for guitar players rather than a focus on the guitar inthe hands of professionals and competition players. As suchthere are student concerts, ensembles conducted by theguest faculty, and drop-in classes happening all the time.This is a UK festival, and it seems the UK suffers for lack ofthese events. If you are looking for practical improvement toyour playing, this really is a good choice. Price-wise thereare cheaper European Alternatives (see European FestivalReview, coming to CG soon), but there are ways to make thisfestival work on a budget.

West Dean is heavily recognised alongside its tradition, andthat has both positive and negative aspects attached to it. Butany previous semblance of a lack of change here is beginningto disappear, and the festival is evolving year on year. As wasmentioned at the start of this article, this was AndrewGough’s first year in command, and under his leadership,West Dean sees its third term. Let’s see what it bring...

West Dean Church where the 2013 festival oncerts took place.

Vida Guitar Quartet.


HAPPY CHRISTMAS to all readers of ClassicalGuitar, wherever you are in the wide world.

Christmas, if one is fortunate, is the time for allof us, our relatives, our nearest and dearest,friends, colleagues, and even those who are notclosest to our hearts, to think of one another in aspecial way, wishing everybody the very best oflife’s pleasures and happiness. Such times of cele-bration have traditionally involved music as part ofthe ceremonies of festivity. Some busy musiciansmay wish to lay their instruments aside for a fewdays, others will reach out for their guitar and per-haps attempt to play something seasonally appro-priate.

Either way, step out into the shopping mallaround Christmas time and your ears will beassailed by much piped wassailing, ranging fromBing Crosby’s chocolate-coated tones to the insis-tent chant of ‘Have yourself a merry littleChristmas/ Make the Yuletide gay’, a recipe whichsends your troubles either ‘out of sight’ or ‘milesaway’, (if only!). A few hours of frenzied shoppingfor presents with such joyful muzak ringing inyour ears should be sufficient to steer you straightback to do some guitar practice, where an hour ofvigorous scales will seem like sanity compared tothe cacophony outside!

READERS MAY well ask what might be recom-mended as ‘seasonally appropriate’ to play on theguitar at Christmas time. Apart from JohnDuarte’s Christmas Carols for solo guitar (publ.Novello) (which he claimed had earned more inroyalties than any other of his published works),and his Sing Christmas Carols to GuitarAccompaniment for voice and guitar, the situationis not entirely promising.

The problem is that many historical pieces writ-ten for Christmas do not sound particularly joyousor celebratory. We have become accustomed to cer-tain traditions in Christmas music. One of these,surely the most beautiful, is the King’s CollegeChoir, Cambridge, type of carol, going back to theMiddle Ages and through to the Victorian hymnwriters, with occasional contemporary works bycomposers such as John Rutter. Other elementsare pop/rock secular Christmas melodies andlyrics, most of which are irritatingly catchy andonce heard keep running through the brain like acold in the head (Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeerbeing a classic example!). Then we have smoochycarols epitomised celebrating White Christmases,chestnuts, and cosy fireplaces. To hear any ofthese three genres of Yuletide music stimulates aninstant response in the listener appropriate to 25December.

The New Grove Dictionary of Music andMusicians devotes some eleven closely printedpages to the history of the carol. The genre con-sists of popular or courtly dance songs, religious

songs (the monophonic carol), the litany or pro-cessional song, and a vast range of ecclesiasticalpolyphony. (None of this is helpful to our readersstill eager to find appropriate guitar music to playto Aunt Agatha after Christmas dinner. But,despite indications to the contrary, we are gettingcloser to the nub of the matter.)

It is a small step to move to the most availableearly music form of Christmas carol, often com-posed for vihuela or lute in the sixteenth century.This is the villancico (a term derived from theSpanish diminutive of villano: ‘peasant’), whichaccording to The New Grove “has come to meansimply ‘Christmas carol’”. Emilio Pujol transcribeda number of these for guitar including Dindirindin(Anon) Madona mia fa (Anon-Pisador), Si te vas abañar Juanica (Pisador), Toda mi vida os amé(Milán), Vos me mataste (Vasquez-Fuenllana), andEn la fuente del rose! (Vasquez-Pisador).

Closer to home is the delightful Villancico deNavidad (Carol of the Nativity) by Agustín BarriosMangoré with its swinging six-eight rhythm and,towards the end, expressive harmonics. This couldbe followed by Campanilleros (Flamenco ChristmasSong), as played by Pepe Martínez (publ. 1968,Mills Music Ltd, transcribed by Ivor Mairants).

After such performances, encores may well berequested, and as with the Christmas wine, thebest may have been left till last. What could be bet-ter in these circumstances than a selection ofMiguel Llobet’s arrangements of Catalan FolkSongs? The three most appropriate are LaFiladora (The Spinner), about two lovers onChristmas Eve, La Nit de Nadal (Christmas Night),and El Noy de la Mare (The Son of the Virgin).Finally Pujol’s arrangement of Cant dels Ocells(Song of the Birds) carries the story of how theeagle and the sparrow, the finch and the lark,came to serenade the Infant Jesus in the manger.This was the theme made famous by the great cel-list, Pablo Casals, who used it as the anthem of lib-eration for Catalonia and invariably performed it inhis later concerts.

Many of you will be able to add to these sugges-tions for Christmas repertoire though it is clearthat for various reasons guitar composers have notusually been drawn to this season to write suitablyatmospheric solos. But in 1816 an Austrian priestnamed Joseph Mohr (1792-1848) wrote a poem.On Christmas Eve, 1818, in the Alpine village ofObendorf the organ of St Nikolaus Church hadbroken down. Thus Joseph Mohr, assistant priest,gave the poem to his friend Franz Xaver Gruber(1787-1863), Kantor and organist at the church.Gruber duly composed a melody for Stille Nacht,Heilige Nacht, to be sung to a guitar accompani-ment. In this way the carol we know as Silent Nightwas created, forever inseparably associated withthe sound of the guitar!

Graham Wade

Momentito


FESTIVE WALTZ/MELANCHOLIC WALTZfor solo guitar by Philip SillsLes Productions d’OZ DZ2001. 12pp.The name of Philip Sills was a completely newname to me and maybe will be to many othersbut with this publication (and other music of hispublished by d’OZ), plus the fact that some of hispieces are currently on You Tube being per-formed by the likes of David Russell and PaulGregory, this may bring him more into the lime-light.

As one would gather from the titles, these arecontrasting compositions the first one, FestiveWaltz, being in A major with a mid-sectionchange of key to D minor; this is indicated to beplayed ‘Gaily with a shadow’ –whatever thatmeans – and is an optimistic romantic affair: verytuneful, flowing and easy on the ear.

Most of the words said in the previously para-graph: romantic, tuneful, flowing, ideally suitMelancholic Waltz as well – except of course thatthis one is a minor key and is a poignant littleitem.

Not having had the opportunity to have seenmuch of this composer’s music (there is oneother piece to be reviewed separately) I can’t con-firm that these two pieces here are representativeof his usual output, but if they are, then that isgood news indeed as these are definitely worthany player of Intermediate standard having alook at.

Steve Marsh

LAZY BIRDS for solo guitar by Roland DyensLes Productions d’OZ DZ1954. 4pp.In this series of one hundred pieces, the compos-er, Roland Dyens has addressed one of the majorissues of music played on the guitar, that ofexpressing the musical ideas of the composerrather than the player. The collection presentsmusic which is, firstly of a high quality and sec-ondly written with consummate skill when itcomes to knowing how the guitar can be heard tobe as expressive as any other instrument if it isplayed with a musical awareness. As I have saidbefore when reviewing this series I do not havethe whole collection before me so I can only com-ment on the music I have seen. The numberingfor the series seems to be the publisher’s DZ cat-alogue numbers the composer has given noadvice on the order of study. The truth is that allthese pieces carry important messages for theguitarist. Lazy Birds invites us to cure the gui-taristic habit, which Dyens calls a small disease,of rolling or spreading anything which consists oftwo or more notes, unless of course you are givenan arpeggio sign; possibly a small considerationbut one that the rest of the musical world adopt-ed over a century ago. This is yet another of thosepieces, like so many in this series, that find a wayof remaining on my music stand on a permanentbasis.

John Arran

CHANSON D’IVOIRE for solo guitar by Roland DyensLes Productions d’OZ DZ1918. 4pp.In this project, ‘Les 100 de Roland Dyens’, I haveonly seen 12 or so pieces of the hundred to beincluded in the set and the only numbering forthe series seems to be the publisher’s DZ cata-logue numbers. However whichever piece youchoose, and they are all published separately,you will find lovely music, superbly written forthe guitar. Chanson d’ivoire is one of my

favourites; it is exquisite in its dynamic shadingwhich is all the more powerful for its restrictedrange. As you learn it you can almost hear theaudience sigh when you play the last, almostinaudible note. This is piece not to miss, reallylovely.

John Arran

GIN PENTATONIC for solo guitar by Roland DyensLes Productions d’OZ DZ1951. 3pp.This piece sets out from the start to concentrateyour attention on the ability to play clean, musi-cal slurs. However don’t ignore the detail of lefthand finger independence which is built into thepiece. Dyens lays everything out beautifully foryou if you just spend time reading what is beforeyou. This is a piece which demands clarity of exe-cution and the careful understanding of the gui-tarist’s slurs, where the music asks for it, can betotally different from what is generally under-stood by the term, slur. I wonder if on the lastbeat of the second bar, the composer hears theopen semiquaver B, given its written length orplayed l.v.? It would also be interesting to know ifin the following bar, the notes are to be played asa single melodic line, or left to sound again as al.v.? In some ways though, the only importantthing here is that the player can facilitate botharticulations and hear the difference. Again thatconcentration on learning to listen.

John Arran

WINK WINK for solo guitar by Roland DyensLes Productions d’OZ DZ1946. 3pp.This is a mammoth project (Les 100 de RolandDyens) by any stretch of the imagination. HereDyens presents one of the gems of the collection.His Wink is infectious; charming you into the joysof the music. In his, I quote “purest Brouwerianstyle” he constructs a quicksilver study using,mainly, slurs, accents and dynamic nuances.This is a fascinating piece, only short but givinga vivid insight into Dyens rich imagination andshowing his approach to a problem also present-ed in a very different way by Brouwer. Essentialfor all who are motivated by the music.

John Arran

SUITE FOR GUITAR (2011) by Massimo FornettiUt Orpheus. 9pp.Massimo Fornetti has not written for the guitarbefore and with the aid of guitarist AdrianaTessier has produced a five-movement suite thatdoffs its cap to the ‘Baroque Suite’ whilst takingthe player through numerous different musicalstyles such as the use of microstructures, wholetone scales, modal scales and atonality, to namebut a few, throughout the work, and quite delib-erately so, as the composer states in the prefaceto ‘create a musical juxtaposition’.

The Suite begins with a Preludio subtitled‘Dance of the Strings in Pair’, which consists ofvarious pairs of notes, a tone apart alternating invarious contrasting rhythms, and alternatingopen basses; also rhythmically at odds. Althoughits length is only 43 bars I found I was bored byabout a third of the way through, as the monoto-ny of it all became its overriding factor. TheCorrente that follows is more interesting, and itskey a little hard to fathom, as the modal use ofcertain melodic themes manages to cloud thekey. The Sarabande is atonal with seemingly ran-dom notes slung one after the other in haphazardfashion. The best of the bunch was the Minuetto

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con Trio that had a nice swing to its rhythm andmade for an interesting few minutes. The finalSalterello is again mainly dealing with repeatednote ideas set in a fast triplet idea with variousrests placed along the way to create a syncopat-ed feel.

I found this a rather mixed piece. Despite thewide variety of styles within it, which I still don’tthink gelled enough into one whole, I just founda lot of the melodic ideas not memorable enoughand therefore the Suite didn’t work for me. I’msure, in the future, Fornetti will write a wonder-ful guitar piece.

Chris Dumigan

LE TRICORDE for solo guitar by Roland DyensLes Productions d’OZ DZ1919. 3pp. One of the joys of reviewing new publications forthe guitar is that occasionally there comes alonga piece or a work in several movements such asa suite or sonata, which not only catches yourattention but imagination and speaks to you on avery personal level; the pieces which I have seenfrom ‘Les 100 de Roland Dyens’ have certainlydone those things to me. Le Tricore is one ofthose pieces, which if you compose music your-self, you know that every note fits exactly whereit should. You can’t add or take away anything;all is exactly as it should be. This short piece,written using only the first three strings of theguitar, concentrates technically on three notechords and slurs but they are just really themedium in which Dyens shapes this gem of apiece. My previous comments about the perfor-mance notes for this series are easily put intocontext here as the music takes our focus ofattention, whilst the annotated notes can beunderstood to point us towards understandingthis.

John Arran

VILLA 31 by Giorgio MirtoUt Orpheus. 9pp.I reviewed Giorgio Mirto’s impressive 3 Nocturnesa little while ago, and now find myself with thislarge one-movement piece Villa 31.

It is immediately full of rock-like riffs, withhammer-ons and fourths alternating with openEs or As, suddenly followed by lightning fast runsbouncing on and off open strings. There are plen-ty of opportunities to show off your arpeggios; ashe spends a certain amount of the piece in allsorts of patterns high or low on the fingerboard,interwoven with open strings to create someinteresting clashes. At page five, there is amomentary let-up as the tempo drops at bar 75to an andante that many players will be gratefulto reach in one piece; not that that is around forvery long, for after a mere 25 bars of gentlearpeggio based lines, the speed picks up again fora varied repeat of the opening section. Themelodic ideas return time and again, gently var-ied as with all good pieces, thus never falling intothe trap of ‘if it sounds good, do it again andagain(ad infinitum)’. Then the piece reaches animpressively structured climactic section, fol-lowed closely by a huge flourish of flying notesand a fortissimo slide into an A/E bare fifthsclosing chord.

An interesting and entertaining piece indeed; itis by its nature, very difficult to play but greatfun throughout and should prove an entertaininglisten, given a decent player. You’re probablygoing to enjoy this piece a great deal.

Chris Dumigan

MISSA by Gian Paolo LuppiUt Orpheus. 11pp.Here the composer has created a piece of guitarmusic that is to be played in a church. With thisin mind he has written a piece in six parts,wherein every section is taken from Gregorianplainchants, which are clearly recognisable inthe piece and has tried to recreate a piece withstrong expressive power.

The Introitus (Cantate Domino) has some free-rhythm solo lines interwoven with heavy ras-gueado chords. A glissando leads into the Kyriewhich begins with arpeggio like lines in complexgroups of 5s and 7s again interspersed withchords of some complexity that frequently have aglissando marking against them. Offertoria(Laetentur Caeli) begins with artificial harmonics,more rasgueado strumming and places where themusic is to be played repeatedly over a given timeperiod. Agnus Dei follows with complex groups of2- and 3-part chords mixed in with demisemi-quaver strummed chords. Communiones (Fili,quid fecisti) is mostly a swift running solo line ofdemisemiquavers before a long glissando takesus to the final Antiphonae (Joannes est nomenejus) that finishes on a low A.

It is entirely unbarred and the music is verydifficult to play and one has to be good at ras-gueado! Saying that, if the style of this music andits content appeal then you may wish to give it atry.

Chris Dumigan

SOLO AND DUO - 10 pieces for 1 or 2 guitars by Miroslaw Drozdzowski and Tatiana StachakEuterpe. 36pp.This book has Drozdowski, one of my favouriteguitar writers, collaborating with another guitarcomposer Tatiana Stachak in producing a set often pieces; perfectly playable as solos (eithercompletely written by Drozdzowski, or as collab-orative efforts) but also having a second guitarpart added by Stachak, to produce a much fullerand richer duet.

Their styles vary considerably from swing-bluesBlue Umbrella, to quasi-renaissance CanzonettaAntica to ragtime Banjo Blues and then to bossanova Bossa Sol-Mi. There is a lovely Venezuelanwaltz in the guise of Adios Laura, and a milongato finish Souvenir de Buenos Aires.

The solos are usually easier than the duets butdo require a moderate technique to do them fulljustice, whilst the duets add that certain extradetail that makes them rewarding items to playeither privately or in concert.

Yet again this is a fabulous book from MrDrozdzowski and his collaborator TatianaStachak and I can only say that if you areunaware of this man’s talents, also take a look atsome of his other publications.

Chris Dumigan

MA BACHIANE A MOI for solo guitar by Roland DyensLes Productions d’OZ DZ1914. 5pp.This is another from the mammoth ‘Les 100..’project. Ma Bachiane à moi is dedicated to thememory of Arminda (Mindinha) Villa-Lobos, theterm Bachiane being the composer’s“Francization then appropriation (or vice versa) ofBachiana, term coined by Villa-Lobos as a titlefor his series of 9 pieces in hommage to J.S.Bach.......” The music is written wholly in anarpeggio technique and the musical content islovely. I feel that the composer’s performance

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notes have an important message to give, butagain they are not immediately straight forwardto understand. Again the message has to be, it isreally important to understand and study what isbefore you with this piece.

John Arran

À LA VOLETTE for solo guitar by Roland DyensLes Productions d’OZ DZ1915. 4pp. More of the mammoth project by Roland Dyens.The only numbering for the series seems to bethe publisher’s DZ catalogue numbers, so it mustbe assumed the pieces could be tackled in anyorder; much simpler of course if you have theguidance of a teacher. À la volette is an absolutedelight. Written in what Dyens calls a ‘piècétude’form, the music is dedicated to the composer’sdaughter for the (then) three years of her life.Close attention to the performance notes willbring about a clean technical performance, thesuperb dynamic indications should do the rest.As with the other pieces I have reviewed in thisseries, the help of a teacher to understand whatis wanted will help greatly.

John Arran

10 OBRAS ORIGINALES PARA GUITARRA CLASICA - EDICION URTEXT VOLUME 1by Agustin Barrios MangoréEdicion Bicenterario. 84pp.Speaking personally, a new edition of Barrios isalways an exciting event. Having been involvedwith Barrios now for a frightening 33 years (!), itis music that is forever imprinted on my mindand heart.

This is a Paraguayan edition and, astonish-ingly, the first official publication of Barrios’pieces from his homeland; an almost unbeliev-able fact. This Volume 1 has 10 works and is anUrtext edition; i.e. referring to his original manu-script note for note, without alteration or adjust-ment. This book therefore provides us with a fas-cinating snapshot of his first thoughts on thesepieces, which in some cases was his only knownversion, whereas with others it was merely thefirst of several adjustments made throughout hislife. This fact bothers some guitarists because, Isuggest, they find it hard to cope with multipleversions of the same piece, leaving them with theproblem of what to add, what to leave out andwhat to change. With that in mind, a number ofguitarists decide to give Barrios a wide berth,which is a great shame when his music is sohuman, so inventive, so cleverly written and somemorable all at the same time. To these gui-tarists I point them in the direction of a numberof players, often from Latin America who still playpieces in this manner, changing details, oftenevery time they play them, which is surely a giftand not a curse!

A great deal of care and effort has gone intothis volume, together with a large amount of sup-plementary material amounting to more than halfthe amount of space taken up with the music,which is: La Catedral, Las Abejas, Vals No3,Aconquija, Aire De Zamba, Contemplacion, DanzaParaguaya, Luz Mala, Julia Florida and Preludioen Do Menor. There are a number of odd detailsin some of the pieces which when checked withthe included manuscripts are very enlightening.For example bar 21 of the first movement of LaCatedral has as its fourth beat, a chord of an F#7with a B# as its bass. A quick check proves thatit indeed says that on the original manuscriptincluded here. Fair enough, but the trouble is

that of the ten pieces, the original manuscript isnot included for Vals No3, Aire De Zamba,Contemplacion and Luz Mala, which I think is amistake. For there are one or two actual printingerrors that are swiftly eradicated when checkingthe original manuscript, as in the 2nd part of LaCatedral, at bar 53, where the 8th semiquaver isprinted as a D, but is in effect, as per the originalmanuscript really an error for a C#. Now I sus-pect that an Urtext edition of a composer’s works,might just be the boost needed to attract theseaforementioned players, who avoid Barrios at themoment. However, if the actual manuscripts arefor some reason absent, when we know they arein existence, it then almost has a detrimentaleffect on the whole affair; as once again one is leftunable to check the validity of the printed ver-sion, which is surely one of the main problemswith Barrios publications, wherein the player hasoften to assume the reliability of the printed ver-sion, when no access to the original has beenavailable.

Furthermore, there are instances where all thedetails of the fingerings and positions written onthe original by Barrios have not made it onto theprinted version in the book (again, La Catedral,bar 48, the strings to be played), which I took tobe a mistake and again a minor irritation.

That said, this book has a lot to offer, not theleast of which are some fascinating versions ofhis pieces with bits missing, parts changed etc.,where he subsequently adapted the versions youfind here. Moreover, a lot of care has gone intothis publication, in spite of the niggles I havealready listed and therefore I can state that thisbook and no doubt its future volumes, is going tobe a series that will be fascinating to acquire andI am sure than many players, whether new toBarrios or not, will want to acquire it.

Chris Dumigan

PAVANE by Gabriel FauréArranged for flute, guitar and violoncello by Sylvain ThibaultLes Productions d’OZ DZ2014. 8pp + separate partsFor a piece which Fauré described as ‘elegant,but not otherwise important’ – his Pavane hasbecome one of the world’s most popular melodiesand since its conception in 1887 has beenarranged for a large variety of instrumentation.

This arrangement by Sylvain Thibault worksvery well in this setting; the cello provides a nicefoundation for the dialogue often happeningbetween the other two instruments. The originalkey of F# minor has been retained and fits veryagreeably for the three instrumentalists.

The recording of Fauré performing this pieceplaces the tempo at around a croquet=100, amore common practice is usually a tad slowerthan this and this edition places the speed ataround crotchet=76-84 which sounds less hur-ried than Fauré’s performance, but then again hewrote the thing so who are we to question?

The edition comes with full score and separateparts for each player, is of around theIntermediate grade and is a worthwhile additionto the guitar repertoire of chamber music.

Steve Marsh

KHALKIDHIKI for solo guitar by Roland DyensLes Productions d’OZ DZ1916. 4pp.As I have started reviewing this series (Les 100 deRoland Dyens) I do not have the whole collectionbefore me so I can only comment on the music I

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have seen. The only numbering for the seriesseems to be the publisher’s DZ catalogue num-bers. I understand exactly what the notes aresaying but I have to urge anyone who has theopportunity to work on this music, to do so.Please don’t be put off by the language of theEnglish translation. It is not ideal to take some-thing at random to illustrate the problem, but ifyou were faced with “this piècétude will alsoallow you to familiarize yourself with staccatoplaying like with certain uneven rhythms (withHellenic scents in occurrence) all the while pro-viding itself to be rather demanding on thedynamics level”. Ok, my translations from Frenchare probably of a similar nature, but if I teach inFrench then it’s on a one-to-one basis and I canmake sure the pupil understands what I want.Here the written word has to suffice, with ofcourse in the case of this composer the excellentdynamic markings and beautiful way he has ofwriting for the guitar. So please see beyond theprinted word and spend time with the score, allthen can be revealed.

John Arran

4 PIECES LATINO CARIBEENNESfor solo guitar by Fabrice PierratLes Productions d’OZ DZ1884. 8pp.Here are four quite tuneful and easy-on-the-earnew works by the French guitarist FabricePierrat. Carino is a flowing and melodic littlepiece; Chôro No. 2 has much more rhythmicinterest than the previous piece plus a verycatchy tune and is possibly the best of thebunch; Hommage a Mario, which is by far themost difficult of the four, has an almost impro-vised atmosphere and the cross-rhythms givethis piece added interest – a pity Pierrat chosethe given metronome speed of crotchet = 126, itsounds so much better at a far slower tempo.Finally comes Paseo, another very likeable andpleasant sounding short piece which possiblyqualifies as having one of the worse endings everto a piece of music guitar music; should it reallyend like this or is this a printing error (which Isuspect).

The printing quality is excellent and the worksare fully fingered although I do think this finger-ing could be better in several places. Grading isof around the 5-6 mark.

Steve Marsh

VARIAZIONI SU UN MOTIVO POPOLARE SICILIANO for solo guitar by Giuseppe TorrisiLes Productions d’OZ DZ1897. 8pp.The theme to this set of variations is an Italiansong titled Si Maritau Rosa, a very simple, catchyand memorable tune, a melody which is easy tolearn but difficult to get out of one’s head after-wards. There are three variations; in each one theoriginal song is plain to hear, Torrisi plainly notopting to try and disguise this lovely tune as isthe way with many compositions written in thisform.

The variations build up in technical difficultywith the first one having the theme heard above‘simple’ arpeggios, then things liven up a littlewith a fast flowing triplet variation and finally thetune is relegated to the bass below rapid sextu-plets.

All is very pleasant and agreeable on the earwith no harmonic surprises. As good as the tuneis, the work needs to be performed at a quickpace otherwise it would seem rather laboured

and the musicality lost. Technically it would besuitable for the grade 6 player.

Steve Marsh

TRES VISTAS ARGENTINAS for solo guitar by Patrick BournetLes Productions d’OZ DZ190O. 12pp.Here are three titled pieces – Luvia de Otono,Silviana, Milonga de la Higuera – the two outerones being milongas and the middle one a tango.With the milonga, and more especially, the tango-form, being extremely popular at the time of writ-ing, this publication is almost certain to drawattention to itself more than another style ofcomposition might have done.

Are they worthy of seeking out? I would say‘yes’. They are all tuneful with good rhythmiccharacter and have nice harmonies with the oddunexpected twist along the way. They are each ofa different nature the final one probably having aslightly more menacing flavour, and this makesthem ideal for a three-part set.

At the author’s suggested tempo markings thisputs these realistically only available to theGrade 6+ player.

Steve Marsh

VIVALDIANA for solo guitar by Roland DyensLes Productions d’OZ DZ1930. 4pp.This is another from the extraordinary projectundertaken by French guitarist Roland Dyens,which is to compose 100 pieces (which he calls‘pieceetudes’ and are to be published by d’OZ). Asopposed to most of his other output, these are tobe ‘student’ pieces of no great difficulty and cov-ering many and varied technical topics.

Vivaldiana’s chief concern is all to do with dif-ferent kinds of rhythm and takes as its subjectmatter the styles of the slow, middle movementsof well-known Vivaldi concertos. Hence withinjust 32 bars of music there is a plethora of dot-ted notes, double-dotted notes and triplets (inquavers and semiquavers). The outcome is a love-ly piece of music, very much hinting at the styleof the Italian master and well worthy of study.Dyens’ meticulousness as regards dampingstrings, avoiding string squeak, paying exactattention to details, etc. are all here in the writ-ten notes to the music.

A very nice, albeit short, piece of writing andworthy of inclusion in the catalogue.

Steve Marsh

LUNE DE MIEL for solo guitar by Francis KleynjansLes Productions d’OZ DZ1888. 4pp.Whenever music written by this composer arrivesfor review there is a ninety-per-cent chance thatit will be of a melodic, uncomplicated natureoften with the melody line flowing along over rip-pling arpeggios; Lune de Miel fits the bill exactly.

In the chosen key of G major and with a scor-datura of 5th string to G and 6th string to D, thisopened the way for Kleynjans to work a tunequite easily over open strings and mostly stan-dard harmony. The result is a syrupy, quite pre-dictable and frankly, boring piece of writingwhich verges towards ‘amateur’ status and is atthe lower end of Kleynjans’ compositions.

The piece is dedicated to Alvaro Companywhose 12-tone avant-garde composition Las SeisCuerdas I’ve just finished reviewing. Musically,harmonically and in every other way possible,this Kleynjans’ work is at opposite ends of thepole from that piece.

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The technical standard varies from extremelysimple through to bar chords up the fingerboardand concluding with artificial harmonics includ-ing ones at ‘frets’ 24 and 27. If you like yoursugar sweet this is for you.

Steve Marsh

BERCEUSE DIURNE for solo guitar by Roland DyensLes Productions d’OZ DZ1917. 3pp. This is a further piece in this amazing set ofpieces by Roland Dyens, who is exploring his feel-ings and ideas in creating a student repertoirewhich is based on his musical beliefs. This is amost lovely piece with a beautifully writtenmelodic lines. The composer’s introduction saysit all, “On top or below, here, the melody reigns.You will therefore carefully highlight it by thesimple fact, which is partly psychological, thatyou know where it is situated but by also andsimultaneously playing its accompanimentimplicitly so as to unroll the most lovely red car-pet for it”. This is actually rather delightfully put,but not all will read it as such. It is quite a hand-ful to take in. However the music speaks for itselfand should give you many hours of joy.

John Arran

SEPT BREVES ENIGMES for solo guitar by Atanas OurkouzounovDoberman-Yppan DO826. 8pp.Having previously enthused in past reviews con-cerning several of Bulgarian composer AtanasOurkouzounov’s published/recorded works itwas a disappointment to wade through theseseven pieces which I found tedious, uninspiringand boring. The creative energy and skill whichwas seemingly poured into the same composer’sFantasia Bulgarica or Avant-Scene or Scherzo aModo Mio and which made these pieces fascinat-ing, exciting and entertaining is lacking here.

Not even the possibilities of 5/8 or 7/8 timesignatures come to the rescue of this music,which in parts seems to try and get in as manydistasteful sounds as possible.

These enigmatic pieces are indeed exactly that– unfathomable. I once wrote of this composer’swork that ‘if performed with enough skill andconviction, the work could make a significantimpact in any concert of contemporary music.’ Idoubt these will.

Steve Marsh

DEUX DANSES for solo guitar by ThierryTisserandLes Productions d’OZ DZ1880. 6pp.The two dances are titled Ma Biguine Mutine andGalanga and as one would expect are quite rhyth-mic affairs. Both are really well-written composi-tions for the guitar from someone who knows andunderstands their way around the fingerboard.

The first one, although retaining a good tune,does rely more upon the Latin-American rhyth-mic patterns than does the second one. A sug-gestion from the composer for an optional perfor-mance practice during the playing of Ma BiguineMutine is to tap the foot loudly on the upbeats ofevery bar throughout the entire piece; easier saidthan done when there are some tricky rhythmsand technical passages to negotiate.

Galanga’s charming quality comes from thecomposer’s skilful use of one of the more attrac-tive qualities the classical guitar can produce:the ‘campanella’ effect (the overlapping or layer-ing of notes in a scale or arpeggio).

These two works are amongst the most appeal-ing and imaginative guitar pieces I’ve comeacross lately. Any player of Intermediate stan-dard who likes quality contemporary music witha Latin flavour would get a lot out of this music.

Recommended.Steve Marsh

DANZA for solo guitar by Laurent MeneretLes Productions d’OZ DZ1882. 4pp.The French guitarist Laurent Meneret’s musichas come my way previously in a couple of reviewpublications and as much as I can recall I havewritten positively and enthusiastically about hismusic.

Danza reinforces my recollection of his compo-sitions. This is an absolutely delightful, refresh-ing and entertaining little work (written for hischildren). It has a South American slant (bol-stered by the fact that the first three notes of therecurring main theme are the same as AntonioLauro’s El Marabino) and is one of those piecesone sings long afterwards.

Great material for teachers to use with theplayer of around the Grade 5 and above level.Recommended.

Steve Marsh

SOLFEGES AND VOCALISES OP195by Ferdinando CarulliEdited by Gonzalo Gallardo & Sam DesmetLes Productions d’OZ DZ1828. 190pp.This is a brave and noble venture for d’OZ as Iguess there can’t be too many guitar studentsaround wishing to improve their solfege (solfa)skills and they should be congratulated for pro-ducing such a lavish and painstaking productionsuch as this, knowing full well that it is veryunlikely to sell like the proverbial hot cakes.

Originally published in two volumes, the firstvolume appeared in 1822 and was titled ‘Solfegeswith very easy guitar accompaniment’. This con-sists of 61 singing exercises each one under-pinned with a written-out guitar part taking theform of arpeggios or block chords. These are pre-sented in order of complexity with the early oneshaving very simple major scale ‘tunes’ to singusing very easy rhythms. Soon more complexrhythmic patterns are utilised and by the con-clusion the works have embraced dottedrhythms, ties, grace notes and note values up todemisemiquavers (32nd notes). These exercisesare not just throwaway little snippets, ratherthey are miniature pieces in themselves aremany are most enjoyable albeit the guitar accom-paniment doesn’t hold many surprises.

Volume two dates from 1826 and consists of 59exercises in solfege and vocalises for mezzo-sopra-no or medium voice. Once again this sectionbegins with scales and intervallic exercises butthis time includes works of much more complexi-ty in both the singing and the guitar part.Phrasing (and therefore thoughts on ‘breathing’) isintroduced as is more difficult rhythmic patterns

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and the student is advised to use the vowelsound ‘ah’ instead of the previously used tonicsol-fa names.

This book contains both the original volumesand has a wealth of information regarding theseoriginal publications (sources, original word-ings); a ten-page ‘Principles of Music’ section;glossary; a large section of editorial comments.

For anyone wishing to begin/improve sight-singing this is an excellent method to choose.Another excellent use for this sizeable publica-tion would be for teachers to use with studentsfor sight-reading development. With eighty piecesto go at, all un-fingered of course, this couldprove to be a valuable and highly functionalteaching aid.

Steve Marsh

BLUESY? ME NEITHER for solo guitar by Roland DyensLes Productions d’OZ DZ1913. 3pp.‘Les 100 de ROLAND DYENS’ is a mammoth pro-ject by any stretch of the imagination. In thisseries of 100 pieces, the well-known and muchrespected composer and guitarist Roland Dyens,sets out to fill a gap in his output of composi-tions; that gap being music written for the stu-dent guitarist. This collection gives us pieceswhich are, in the composer’s words “rather sim-ple music to play and also, while we’re at it,somewhat ‘sexy’ to study”. I know exactly whathe means even if his way of saying it might notbe understood by a nine year old pupil. As I startreviewing this series I do not have the whole col-lection before me so I can only comment on themusic I have seen. The only numbering for theseries seems to be the publisher’s DZ cataloguenumbers. No matter, from the music under dis-cussion it would be straight forward to choose apiece suitable for a particular student. But whata choice, there is so much on offer; here we havea little blues, Bluesy? Me Neither. Dyens drawsyour attention to the ternary rhythm and alsopoints out the need to pluck the chords which donot have an arpeggio sign, with the notes togeth-er. Some left hand notes are bracketed when theleft hand finger touches that note to damped itssound. So you get a really good idea of what iswanted with the piece. Well you do, once youhave worked out the rather charming Englishwhich is used in the notes. The musical under-standing and the technical demands areabsolutely essential to the student guitarist, butmy opinion is that the instructional notes couldhave been written in a more direct language, theyare given in French and English and the Frenchis considerably better than the English version.That said, remember I said ‘essential to the stu-dent guitarist’.

John Arran

ROMANCE D’HIVER for solo guitar by David GaudreauLes Productions d’OZ DZ1893. 4pp.Winter Romance is a sad little affair with a plain-tive tune floating over an arpeggio-style accom-paniment. The writing style manages to conveythe bleakness of the season and possibly the sor-row felt after a finished love affair … or I mighthave that completely wrong, but it just soundslike it ought to be that scenario.

It is quite an evocative and effective composi-tion and with no great technical challengeswould be suitable for the Intermediate player.

Steve Marsh

THE MAGIC SOUVLAKI for solo guitar by Roland DyensLes Productions d’OZ DZ1956. 4pp.Ok, so there can’t be many pieces of musicnamed after a brochette from Greek cuisine. Thestrong rhythmic character of this music gives itan infectious air. The, mainly, 5/8 rhythm fallsnaturally on the ear. I like the way that Dyenskeeps technical difficulties to a minimum so thatthe performer can really get into the feel of themusic and in so doing move his facility towards anew level. My only point of issue is, in the anno-tated notes the composer describes a fake slur aswanting to give the impression of being tied tothe previous note (on a different string). Ourmusical understanding of the word tied is thatthe second note is not sounded but joined to thevalue of the first. This is a series all guitaristsshould investigate. It asks you the think, under-stand and learn to listen. I cannot praise it, orcongratulate the composer enough. Merci M.Dyens.

John Arran

THE OLD METRONOME for solo guitar by Roland DyensLes Productions d’OZ DZ1932. 2pp.The Old Metronome is so full of character that youwork towards producing that element and forgetthat you are learning musical craftsmanship. Inmy reviews of this series, I have hinted at thevarious aims which Dyens sets out for us inthese pieces. However, whilst he doesn’t actuallysay (in the notes to the music I have seen) whatthe ultimate aim must be, I feel that if you under-stand what that aim is, you will want toapproach this music from a different direction.Roland Dyens is saying the most important thingfor any musician; it consists of one word butsuch a difficult thing to achieve: he is saying,“listen!” In that simple word is the clue to under-standing the elements of what the composer hadin his head, what I call the truth in the music. Heis giving us, in these short, sometimes quite sim-ple pieces, a way of always having in front of us,a perceivable learning curve, which if you followbrings not only wonderful riches to the playerbut also to the listener.

John Arran

PIZZMAMBO for solo guitar by Roland DyensLes Productions d’OZ DZ1933. 3pp.This is a mammoth project by any stretch of theimagination. Another in the set of one hundredpieces, the composer Roland Dyens, is filling outa gap in his musical output, that gap beingmusic written for the student guitarist. I do nothave the whole collection before me so I can onlycomment on the music I have seen. The onlynumbering for the series seems to be the pub-lisher’s DZ catalogue numbers. As in all themusic I have seen from this series, the accent ison dynamic control and understanding and exe-cuting articulation. This is the very core of mak-ing the music sing and say something; it is theessential part of communicating the composer’sideas. Pizzmambo is a wonderful, if quite trickypiece to learn in order to be able to begin toexpress what the music is saying. The Frenchnotes seem perfect whereas there is not quite thesame ability to express meaning in the Englishtranslation. Yet again an essential piece for thoseneeding to express themselves through theinstrument.

John Arran

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ANDRÉS SEGOVIA ARCHIVE - SPANISH COMPOSERSVICENTE ARREGUI: Canción lejana; Tres piezaslíricas; Intermedio; Confidencia, Campesina.PEDRO SANJUÁN: Una leyenda. GASPARCASSADÓ: Catalanesca; Canción de Leonardo;Sardana Chigiana; Preámbulo y Sardana;Leyenda Catalana. PEDRO DONOSTIA: Errimina.JAUME PAHISSA: Canço en el mar; Tres temasde recuerdos; Preludio - Por el viejo camino,Diálogo: Danza lejana. FEDERICO MOMPOU:Canción y Danza.Roberto Moronn PérezReference Recordings FR-705These compositions dedicated to Segovia, butnot usually played by him, were revived andedited by Angelo Gilardino, and published byBèrben Edizioni Muscali of Italy, having beendiscovered in the Segovia Archives in Linares.For many listeners the pieces may be totallyunfamiliar and it is strongly recommended thatenthusiasts should invest in the scores of theseworks as each publication is well presented andprovides extensive background information.

The music contained here is, as the title pro-claims, entirely Spanish, though it is the lyrical,introspective impulse of eastern Iberian musewhich is mainly predominant rather than the cutand thrust of Andalusian dance influences.Cassadó, Pahissa, and Mompou, were Catalan,Arregui came from Madrid but with origins inNavarre, Sanjuán, spent most of his life awayfrom Spain in Cuba and the USA, and PadreDonostia, the Basque priest is already renownedfor his soulful guitar solo, Dolor.

It is now over a decade since these pieces sawthe light of day as a result of Gilardino’s metic-ulous scholarly endeavours. Not many of themhave appeared in the concert repertoire overthose years and perhaps they are not likely to.One problem could be the adoption of solos writ-ten quite early in the twentieth century whichwere not popularised and established by Segoviaat the time. They have never so far entered theblood stream of players as have the works ofTorroba, Turina, Rodrigo, etc. These pieces aremainly post-romantic poetic works written in atraditional style of harmony and tonality,expressive works produced in a very differentera from our own. Their lack of general accep-tance so far could be related to the very samereasons that Segovia did not wish to take theminto his repertoire (whatever those reasonswere).

So for guitarists this recording offers some-thing of a challenge and an opportunity. It is notoften that a recording is issued these days inwhich nearly all the pieces will be unknown tomost listeners. Yet there is a sense of adventurein such a project as there still is with the Bèrbenseries. The works offered are written by master-ly composers and contain a world of feeling andcolour. The compositions are deeply idiomatic tothe guitar and provide a coherent panorama ofaspects of Spanish musical culture before theCivil War came along and messed everything up.It is now up to the classical guitar world to seizethe chance to expand horizons and give all thislovely creativity the attention it deserves.

Each item is beautifully interpreted by RobertMoronn Pérez, while that wizard of the recordingstudio, John Taylor, has once more engineeredan impeccable recording from the performancesin the Holy Trinity Church, Weston,Herefordshire. Liner notes by Angelo Gilardino

are written from the point of view of a living ded-ication to the music itself which is rare indeed.We look forward very much to a promised secondrecording from Robert Moronn Pérez featuringthe lost Segovia repertoire written by Frenchcomposers.

Graham Wade

CHRISTMAS GUITARSA. RUIZ-PIPO: Winter Danza; ANONYMOUS:Emmanuel Gloria; Past Three O’Clock; Joululaulu.R. DURRANT: A Christmas Eve Lullaby; The SecretDance of the Pets; An Acoustic Winter Solstice; AChristmas Wish; The Polar Bear; This World Needsto Sing; A Christmas Eve Lullaby (coda); All theAnimals. P. CARTLEDGE: A Northern Winter Night.P. JEWSON: Because of Christmas Day. Richard DurrantLong Man Records 0262CDRichard Durrant is a guitarist and multi-instru-mentalist who writes and performs in a variety ofstyles including classical, pop, folk and jazz. Thisrange of types is reflected in this fascinating,enthralling and thoroughly entertaining recording.To help him achieve this end he has gatheredtogether ten other excellent musicians performingon piano, organ, guitars, percussion and vocalsplus the choir of St. Nicolas & St. Mary School,Shoreham. Also on the programme is none otherthan the genius comedian/scriptwriter that is ourown beloved Barry Cryer who is featured as nar-rator on The Polar Bear, a five-movement suite forsolo guitar and one of the many highlights on thisprogramme.

The disc begins in fine fettle with a rousing ver-sion of Antonio Ruiz Pipo’s famed Danza (fromCancion y Danza No. 1) featuring guitars, bass andpercussion. What has this to do with Christmasyou may ask? Well the answer comes two-thirds ofthe way through with the sudden appearance ofGood King Wenceslas appearing alongside thetune of Danza. This sounds a dreadful conceptwhen written down but in reality it works splen-didly well.

There is something rather moving and emotivewhen listening to young children singing, espe-cially Christmas-related music. This happens sev-eral times on this disc, sometimes as soloists,other times as a full-blown choir. A special men-tion should be given to the lovely naïve quality ofthe voice of one Felix Durrant on the MikeOldfield-like All the Animals and also the powerfuland well-controlled singing of Amy Kakoura whofeatures on several tracks.

Christmas Guitars is nothing if not an eclecticmix of styles and instrumentation; of the 18tracks there are only three in which Durrant hasnot been involved in the composition, or arrange-ment, of the music. Every piece has somethingnew to offer and there does not appear to be any‘programme fillers’ – all are of equal outstandingmerit.

If this review appears before Christmas then thisrecording is well worth tracking down for playingduring the festive season.

Steve Marsh

MYSTERIOUS BOUNDARIESCOUPERIN: Les Barricades Mystérieuses. J.S.BACH: Allemande and Chaconne from Partita No.2for solo violin BWV 1004; Aria and Variation No.1from the Goldberg Variations BWV 988; Preludefrom Partita No.3 for solo violin BWV 1006.GRANADOS: Spanish Dance No.4 (Villanesca).SATIE: Gnossienne No.1. MONTERVERDI: Nigra

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Sum. ANON: Pange Lingua. COUPERIN: LesBarricades Mystérieuses (baritone guitar). Tony McManus (metal-strung guitars)Compass Records 7-4612-2 CDWhile in the coffee bar at the 2013 City of DerryGuitar Festival (reported elsewhere in CG), Ibecame aware of a gentleman who was road-test-ing a locally-built classical guitar. It was clear fromthe hefty chunks of the Chaconne that this manknew his stuff but wasn’t a classical player in thestrictest sense, the clearest visual evidence beingoccasional use of the left-hand ‘thumb-over’ tech-nique that we know was applied in the early 19thcentury but is generally considered incompatiblewith classical guitars from Torres onwards.

The stranger, it emerged, was Scottish-bornTony McManus, who was billed to appear the fol-lowing evening under the banner of ‘Celtic acousticguitar’. Using his own metal-strung instrumentsand fielding the established folk club mix of songs,solos and stories, McManus soon proved himselfequally adept at all three. But it was thatimpromptu Chaconne amid the plastic cups thatmade the most lasting impression.

So how does McManus fare on this 2013 release,which he prefaces with two modestly-worded para-graphs confessing his lack of formal credentials?Well, it’s certainly not for those who perceive themetal-strung guitar as strictly a folk and popularinstrument to be denied access to the concert plat-form in the same way that our own classical guitaronce was. But for the rest of us, the texturesMcManus generates offer a novel and engagingtake on what’s essentially a programme of estab-lished transcriptions and arrangements. There areoccasional rough edges, such as the intonation inthe Prelude from BWV 1006. This is regrettable,since the campanella fingerings and percussivehammer-ons McManus applies elsewhere in thesame piece rank among the highlights of the discas a whole. But perhaps it’s the less familiar choic-es of Nigra Sum and Pange Lingua that capture theimagination most readily, both items being well-suited to their new surroundings and enjoying theadvantage of having had few, if any, nylon stringoutings with which to make comparisons.

A sincere and persuasive away fixture thatdeserves a hearing.

Paul Fowles

IAN WATTDOWLAND: Preludium; Galliards (The Earl of Essexand Queen Elizabeth); Two Fancyes; SemperDowland Semper Dolens. McLEOD: Fantasy onthemes from Britten’s “Gloriana”. WALTON: FiveBagatelles. WILSON: Dreammusic. BRITTEN:Nocturnal after John Dowland Op.70. Ian WattNimbus NI6226 CDStill in his early twenties, Ian Watt is known for hiscapacity to handle the heftiest programmes withskill and maturity. My first encounter was, if mem-ory serves, at Nürtingen 2006, where the adoles-cent Watt expressed great interest in the fact thatI owned an original 1965 copy of Julian Bream inConcert, complete with the spoken announce-ments cut from the 1993 CD reissue.

So it’s fitting that this 2013 release, in additionto marking Britten’s centenary and 450 yearssince Dowland’s arrival, commemorates the eight-ieth birthday of the guitarist and lutenist whosewords were captured on a reel-to-reel taperecorder all those years ago. Also in the mix aretwo premiere recordings, one of which has obviousBritten links while the other, Dreammusic by

Thomas Wilson (1927-2001), is something of anoutsider. It should also be mentioned that theDowland transcriptions are interspersed with thelater offerings.

This leads to one minor criticism of an otherwisetriumphant innings, namely that the chronologicalshifts generate something of a bump. I’m thinkingin particular of the Dowland Preludium leadinginto the 8’32” exploration of Gloriana themes byJohn McLeod (b.1934). I say this with no disre-spect to McLeod, whose past dealings with the gui-tar include a substantial concerto that was pre-miered by Ian Watt and reviewed in CG July 2010.The present solo work is also something of aheavyweight, although McLeod throws in a coupleof familiar tunes for those of us whose knowledgeof Gloriana extends little beyond the CourtlyDances. It’s also clear by now that Watt is on out-standing form, an impression enhanced in all thatfollows, so much so that I’ll be in danger of exceed-ing my word limit.

So, as briefly as possible, we have a FiveBagatelles distinguished by an unusually waltz-like No.2. The tempo di valse indication was omit-ted from the OUP score but, as I’m sure Wattknows, appeared on the label but not the sleeve ofthe 1973 Bream LP. In line with current practice,Watt takes the third Bagatelle slower than wasonce customary. Received wisdom is that this wasWalton’s intention, although I’m still getting usedto it. As for the Nocturnal, Watt delivers a patricianaccount in which contrast is central; the variationmarked Musingly being one of the slowest on myshelf and the ensuing Very Agitated one of thequickest.

A superb celebratory release about which I couldhave said far more.

Paul Fowles

SAMBA URBANOTRAD: Samba Urbano 1 & 2. JAIR DE PAULA:Sambalanço. MACHADO: Charango do Vovó.JOBIM: Samba do Avlão; Garoto. PEREIRA: Circulodas Cordas. PERNAMBUCO: Graúna. TAPAJOS:Ebulição. MARIANO: Curumim. AZEVEDO:Camundongo. EL-SALAMOUNY: Xaxado;Capelinha; O Marinheiro; Forró Variations.Ahmed El-Salamouny with Claudio Menandro(guitar) and Gilson de Assis (percussion)Amphion 20357 CDThe gentleman currently flagging my driveway,who also happens to be a skilled amateur gui-tarist, just remarked that doing the rounds ofinternational festivals must be a great way ofkeeping up with your favourite players. He’s right,of course, but I had to point out that I’ve alwaysseen this as the lesser of two motivations. Thefirst is, and I hope always will be, that the moreenterprising festival organisers will introduce out-standing performers who might otherwise haveenjoyed moderately successful careers on theirown patch while leaving the wider world undis-turbed.

One such player is German-born Ahmed El-Salamouny, who first came to my attention whenhe shared the bill with no less a figure than CarlosBarbosa-Lima at the Hersbruck Festival in August2013 (reported elsewhere in CG). A seasoned prac-titioner of the nylon-strung ‘Latin guitar’, El-Salamouny emerged as the driving force in theclosing jam, for which he and his percussionistwere joined by Barbosa-Lima and Lawrence DelCasale.

A reissue from sessions that took place in 1995,this colourfully packaged disc will surely live up

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to all the expectations of anyone who was presentat the Hersbruck event. Although El-Salamouny, inan after-hours conversation, was at pains toemphasise he doesn’t see himself as a classical gui-tarist, the fact is that a sizeable chunk of the non-original items here have long inhabited the ‘upmar-ket encore’ sector of many a classical guitarist’srepertoire. In other words, we’re dealing with thetype of material that’s of traditional and popularorigin but displays sophistication by the shovelful.

You’ll need to attend a lot of festivals before youhear it done better than this, the backgroundpresence of second guitarist Claudio Menandroallowing the understated but endlessly resource-ful El-Salamouny the maximum freedom to carryout his role as team leader. Those of us who yearnfor the days when playing the guitar was still con-sidered the height of cool will be the first torejoice in these masterful and streetwise perfor-mances.

The time was when I’d have ended this reviewwith the words ‘find a copy if you can’, but in anage when online traders large and small seem tohave access to almost everything, your chances ofsuccess were never better.

Paul Fowles

DOMENICO SCARLATTI SONATESCARLATTI: Sonatas K391/L79; K544/L497;K165/L52; K490/L206; K27/L449; K208/L238;K209/L428; K380/L23; K11/L352; K322/L483;K213/L108; K140/L107. Lucio DossoBongiovanni GB 5176-2 CDIt’s all go with Scarlatti on the guitar. The timewas when just a couple of sonatas might be

served at an early stage in the programme as achange from the usual selected movements froma Bach ‘lute’ suite. When John Williams devoted awhole side of an LP to Scarlatti in 1972, it wasseen as a significant upping of the stakes, no lessa figure than Leo Brouwer responding two yearslater with what must have been one of the firstall-Scarlatti recordings by a guitarist. Also activein the field was Carlos Barbosa-Lima, whose twovolumes of Scarlatti arrangements were pub-lished in 1971. I haven’t been able to trace therelease date of Barbosa-Lima’s Scarlatti recordinglisted in the Orphée Database, although this pre-sumably counts as another early milestone.

Now, as 2013 draws to a close, I’m finding it dif-ficult to name all the dedicated Scarlatti CDs tohave come my way over the last few years. It’squality merchandise, of course, and there arethose out there who love it to bits. But are we notin danger of reaching saturation level?

The present offering from Lucio Dosso ticks allthe boxes and enjoys the benefit of a particularlywarm sound capture. I also found myself drawnto Dosso’s take on ornamentation which,although often of the cross-string variety, isinvariably spacious and unfussy, thus steeringclear of all the jangling and clattering that’s sooften bugged me in the past. In fact, Dosso’s tem-pos generally tend to be on the slow side, which isperhaps no bad thing. After all, no guitarist isgoing to outpace a professionally-handled harpsi-chord, but the guitar does have an advantagewhen it comes to intimacy and lyricism.

Stylish and engaging Scarlatti from a performerwho knows the turf, but maybe it’s time to move on.

Paul Fowles

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MY GUITARY. NOUSIS: Five Pieces for Little Lizetaki; Naxos Suite;Five Short Ideas; A Piece for Majo; Naxos Suite;Grenzenlose Fantasie; Aegean Fantasy.Yorgos NousisAvailable from CD BabyHere is a very good player indeed, interpreting his owncompositions and arrangements in an extremely pro-fessional offering. The simple but attractive sleevedesign, clear recording quality, excellent level of play-ing and the music itself is all of a high standard.

The music ranges from slow and quietly romanticthrough to highly charged and rhythmic works cover-ing a variety of contemporary styles. Several of thetracks incorporate other pieces cleverly intermingledwith Nousis’ own, such as the multi-styledGrenzenlose Fantasie where, from out of nowheresnippets of the theme from J. S. Bach’s FugueBWV847 keep appearing.

Recommended.Steve Marsh

LAST LIGHTBRENDON RANDALL-MYERS: Making Good Choices.SAHBA AMINIKIA: Persian Dances for Guitar Trio.MATTHEW CMIEL: How to Shatter Light. CLAYTONMOSER: Screaming from the Skies. ANTHONYPORTER: Needle-Play. DANNY CLAY: A Place thatInhabits Us. GARRETT SHATZER: The Transition.DAN BECKER: Last Light.Mobius Triowww.mobiustrio.comThe Mobius Trio, formed in 2010, consists of gui-tarists Robert Nance, Mason Fish and MatthewHolmes-Linder. When first considering this ensembletheir philosophy was based upon the risky principle of

only ever performing music, which they themselveshad commissioned and therefore all the tracks on thisdisc are, I would imagine, premiere performances.What luck then that they seem to have chosen wiselyin their choice of composers, as each and every one ofthe works on this, their debut album, is of such highclass. The interest level throughout is on a level par foreach track; the music is exciting, out of the ordinary,entertaining and fascinating.

Throughout, the trio play at a high level of technicaland musical virtuosity and this has to be one of thefinest debut albums of contemporary music to comemy way.

None other than Sergio Assad has said of them“…the most inventive and exciting young guitarensemble today.” – that just about sums it up.

Highly recommended.Steve Marsh

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45Classical Guitar Magazine

Next month in

DAVID RUSSELLdiscusses his Grandeur of the Baroque CD

with Thérèse Wassily Saba

C L A S S I C A L

GUITAR


BACH’S LUTE WORKS FROM THE GUITARIST’S PERSPECTIVE :VOL. II, BWV 998/999/1000Tilman HoppstockPrim-Musikverlag DarmstadtISBN 978-3-941734 - 08-1This amazing book deserves to be read by all gui-tarists intending to play the music of Bach.Following on from Volume I, a masterpiece of schol-arship, Tilman Hoppstock now offers the secondbook in his intended trilogy. The publication isquite dazzling in its brilliance, including not onlyhundreds of musical examples but also a compactdisc performing the extracts printed here.

In an introduction Hopkinson Smith, an authori-ty on the lute music of Bach himself, commentsthat Hoppstock’s ‘study is exhaustive without everbeing pedantic and his creativity is certainlyrefreshing’. He also points out that ‘from the gui-tarist’s perspective’ in the title is something of amisnomer implying a ‘somewhat narrower point ofview and a more technically limited approach’. But‘His work, even though it relates time and again tothe guitar, grows out of a much broader and moreuniversal musicality’.

Hoppstock’s Vol. I, published in 2009, dealt withBach’s Suites BWV 995/996. He now proceeds toPrelude, Fugue and Allegro, BWV 998, the PreludeBWV 999, and what must be the most popularFugue for most guitarists, none other than BWV1000. The publication is 335 pages in length sothere is a massive amount of meat round everybone. The copious musical examples throughoutare played for us on an accompanying compact discwith 99 tracks. Also included, no effort spared, isone of the finest bibliographical lists concerningBach and the guitar you are ever likely toencounter, as well as a magnificent list of musicaleditions.

The Prelude BWV 999 is a piece that so many gui-tarists perform and Hoppstock’s analysis can helpboth virtuoso performers and the amateur player.His discussion covers the sources, instrumenta-tion, key and notation, different instrumentation,musical editions, harmonic analysis, melody andbass structure, the final bar, articulation anddynamics, arrangement and fingering concepts,ranging, with musical examples, over nearly twentypages of text. You will not find a more thoroughintroduction anywhere else.

Could this be scholarly overkill for the less com-petent player? The answer will depend on the indi-vidual. Certainly we should learn as much as wecan about every piece we play if any performance isto be founded on insight and knowledge and notjust animal instinct. If the author makes a verynourishing meal (covering 18 pages) out of the com-paratively miniature Prelude, just think of the veri-table banquet set out for the Fugue, BWV 1000 (131pages) and the Prelude, Fugue, and Allegro, BWV998 (127 pages).

But if we left it there, something vital would beleft out - nothing less than a further chapter (21pages) on the Hidden Messages? in the fugues ofBWV 1000 and BWV 539. ‘The fascinating subjectof numerical symbolism and hidden messages’leads us, as the author admits, into ‘a highly sensi-tive minefield’, a controversial area associated with‘religiosity and profession of faith or with sacrile-gious and profane games with numbers’.

Such phrases however, as ‘Bach has in factimmortalised himself tri-triadically with his signa-ture in the organ fugue’, ‘ the de-coding of JohannSebastian Bach’s name also displays the symbolicpower of the threefold triad’, and ‘In particular the

final research step, the third hierarchic level, pre-sents a challenge to micro-gematric decoding tech-nology’, lead to a growing suspicion that somethingfishy is going on. Especially when Hoppstock sud-denly discovers the elements of ‘For he is a jollygood Fellow’ (sic) within Organ Fugue BWV 539and on page 311, (against all logical odds), bringstogether Handel, the Beatles, the Duckberg stories(about whether J.S. Bach was the ‘conceptualfounder’ of Donald Duck!) and the numbers of theTrinity all within a single sentence.

Tilman Hoppstock’s last paragraph laments thefrequent mis-spelling of both of his names, claimingthat he was named after the sculptor TilmanRiemenschneider (1460-1531). (Point of informa-tion: ‘Riemen’ in German is vulgar slang for ‘prick’or ‘cock’, and Schneider means ‘cutter’!).

At this point, as a footnote implies, we are back inthe realm of the Allan Willcocks hoax where the gui-tarist ‘invented’ the life of a non-existent composer(1869-1952) and played and recorded compositionsallegedly by this mysterious Englishman but actu-ally written by Hoppstock himself . Just as well thatthe author advises us that this final chapter ‘istherefore in no way connected with the other sec-tions of the book’.

Hoppstock thus cannot resist an elaborate joke atthe end of the book where readers are at firstintrigued, then confused, and probably fooled(unless they pay attention to the small print). Suchextravagances, such liberties, are perhaps a smallprice to pay. But does the final chapter diminishthe publication’s overall sense of integrity? In yearsto come it may be that Tilman Hoppstock will feelquite ashamed of this silly, unnecessary spoof.Jokes and the mixing of genres are dangerous toysto play with in a scholarly context. We need to takeour artists and scholars seriously and to rely ontheir words and judgement. Leave the stand-upcomedy stuff to the politicians - they are so muchfunnier.

Graham Wade

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Bach’s Lute Worksfrom the Guitarist’s Perspective

The new book published by Prim - Musikverlag:

Vol. 2 BWV 998, 999,1000

Prim - Musikverlag Darmstadt


EVOLUCIÓNJohn MillsDPJ Films DPJDVD-003In this fascinating DVD, John Mills, now one of theelder statesmen of the British guitar scene,explores the concepts of the romantic guitar andhow these principles have been incorporated intohis own playing. A wide range of topics are coveredincluding guitar construction, posture and righthand technique, vibrato, compensation and tonalshading, dynamics, rubato and portamento, etc.There are complete performances of Tansman’sEntrée and Torroba’s Elegía, and partial perfor-mances of other works such as the slow movementfrom Torroba’s Sonatina, Tansman’s Barcarole,Albéniz’s Capricho Catalan, Llobet’s arrangement ofEl Mestre, etc.

The production method is to have John Mills talk-ing not to camera but to a person off-camera whosometimes interjects comments and occasionalenthusiastic cries of ‘fantastic!’. This slightlyoblique method leads to a sensation of eavesdrop-ping a private lesson or conversation and was per-haps a subconscious reflection of public broadcast-ing policies where only a very few individuals areever allowed to talk straight into the camera butmust refer constantly to the presenter. Where thepresenter is invisible however, certain problemsoccur. The viewer, for example, is never sure here ofthe status of the hidden observer. Is our secretsharer a pupil, the producer, a professional player,or merely a fan? The result is that John Mills hasto speak sideways to get his points over. One under-stands that this is a presentational problem and insome instructional DVDs the star speaking directinto the camera can seem to be too dominant apresence.

The substance of the instruction however willprove valuable to many types of players. John Millsis advocating a return to the guitar from the stand-point of tone quality and colour, away from a moremechanical style. In doing so, he argues powerfullyfor a sympathetic re-appraisal of the Segovianrepertoire, though he has no high hopes that suchan evaluation will take place for many years tocome.

This DVD is an ideal compendium of John Mills’scentral philosophy of the guitar, and certainly therich harvest of his performing concepts has neverbeen gathered together before in this way. This syn-thesis of John’s wisdom is a valuable document ofa style of guitar playing that many younger playershave hardly considered throughout their studies.

The rub comes when students attempt to putsome of these tips into practice. John Mills, likeSegovia, has a natural aptitude for creating beauti-ful sounds from a guitar, a combination of naturalability, a superb gift of aural perception, andhands, both left and right, exactly the right shapeand size for enabling the guitar to sing like anenchanted bird. Moreover, John can take any gui-tar, even a poor one, and endow it with the gift ofprofound sonority. The perfection of his playing isthe product of endless dedication to practice andself-improvement. But the bedrock of his geniushas always been the result of enormous naturalmusical gifts which would have transferred them-selves to almost any instrument if he had sodesired. Fortunately for us, John Mills chose theguitar.

Nevertheless, it is fascinating to hear John Millstalk about his personal approach to this difficultinstrument. The deceptive ease of John’s art willremain something of a phenomenon. Most gui-tarists will respond to this DVD with increased

respect and admiration for a player who has estab-lished a unique niche among the world’s finestplayers. The fact is that John Mills is a highly indi-vidual performer and a great guitarist, a uniqueartist, and a national treasure. However much heexplains his method of tackling the guitar, nobodycan ever arrive at the same destination. What hedoes with the instrument is ultimately beyondexplanatory definition or description. Whateversecrets he shares with us here, the mystery of hisart is always somewhere else. And like so many ofthe most eminent players, he gets better all thetime.

Graham Wade

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FROM KLING-ONwww.kling-on.comHere we find an advanced version of 'removable' plastic Golpéplates designed to fit over any guitar surface in order to allowa player to effectively convert a standard Classical guitar intoa Flamenco model. The pack information states this; ‘NB thewords most and compatible... Safe for most Nitro-Cellulose.Compatible with Matte/Satin finishes.’

The plastic guards are durable and the player has to peel offthe backing in order to then stick the shaped guards justbelow the 1st string and just above the 6th string...thus onecan strike with the thumb and/or nail tips.

The plates are not intended to stay on permanently and sothe backing must be retained and used again and again. Ifound that the plates fitted easily onto my Aria Classic, a few'air pockets' had to be smoothed out, I played a while and thenI peeled the guards off easily.

I feel sure that guitarists who cross styles and do have tostrike the top of a very expensive guitar will find these protec-tors very handy. The only product number I saw seemed tobe EV-3P-C. Kling-On also produce a guard for plectrum gui-tars too. If you want to save your guitar from self-inflicteddamage, then go for this.

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VICENTE AMIGOUnion Chapel, London. 24 September 2013.Although this concert was part of the Tierra albumtour, including the performers from the recording,the flamenco guitarist Vicente Amigo first startedwith some very welcome solo flamenco pieces fromhis recent recordings. The venue was intimate andAmigo’s playing was as warm, communicative andtechnically brilliant as always. He was then joinedby the rest of his flamenco ensemble – PaquitoGonzález (cajón), Rafael de Utrera (singer) and hiscousin Añil Fernández (second guitar) to performsome flamenco style pieces from Vicente Amigo’smore strictly flamenco recordings. Rafael de Utrerais an award-winning singer from Utrera in Seville.He has worked accompanying many of flamenco’sfinest dancers. He sang Autorretrato (self-portrait); apiece written by Vicente Amigo and which EnriqueMorente sang so movingly on Vicente Amigo’salbum Paseo de Gracia.

Then the flamenco ensemble were joined by thefull group, which included the Scottish musi-cians, with whom he recorded his recent CDcalled Tierra, including Mike McGoldrick on tinwhistle and Uilleann pipes, John McCusker on

fiddle, Guy Fletcher on piano and Hammondorgan, Donald Shaw on accordion, Ewen Vernalon double bass and Danny Cummings on percus-sion and drums. Any nervousness that one mighthave had about whether one could combine fla-menco with Celtic music successfully was imme-diately put into the background as one watchedVicente Amigo perform: he was so absolutelyhappy and comfortable and clearly inspired, that

any criticism was reducedto a mere intellectual exer-cise. In short, it was a musi-cally successful evening andthe combination of the Celticand flamenco musicians andmusical instruments workedwell.

Thérèse Wassily Saba

STEPHEN DODGSONMEMORIALSt James’s Piccadilly,London. 3 October 2013.St James’s Church wasabsolutely full for this veryspecial concert, with a largenumber of musicians in theaudience. Most of the per-formers in the concert hadbeen students of StephenDodgson’s from his manyyears of teaching music the-ory and composition at theRoyal College of Music,London. The concert wasgiven the title of ‘TheMidst of Life’ – a HeartyCelebration of the Life andMusic of Stephen Dodgson(1924–2013)’ and the prof-its of the concert were givento the charity, the MAEFoundation, which providesmusical instruments andmusic lessons to refugeechildren from Burma, livingin the refugee camps alongthe Thai border.

Stephen Dodgson wrote asolo guitar piece for JohnWilliams in 1994 called TheMidst of Life, which heplayed in this concert. Thiswas the first time I hadheard the piece, althoughJohn Williams told me thathe has been playing it inconcert for many years. It isa very emotional piece with

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TheAugustine Foundation


a strong rhythmic element and also, like so many ofhis pieces, one can feel a thread of conversation in it.When Stephen Dodgson was writing this piece, theyoung composer Tim Stevenson died suddenly, andStephen Dodgson said that his death strongly influ-enced the direction, which the piece took.

There was another work for guitar on the pro-gramme, which had also been fuelled by the death ofa colleague composer: Echoes of Autumn for viola andguitar performed by Benedict Cruft and Tom Ellis. Itwas written in 1998 in memory of the Spanish com-poser and pianist Antonio Ruiz-Pipó. The musicaldialogue between the mournful viola part and the gui-tar part flowed well and was fast-paced, passingthrough changes of mood and expression, as if twofriends are having a very animated conversationtogether.

I hadn’t heard much of Stephen Dodgson’s non-guitar works before but I definitely fell in love with hisother works during this concert. I found his musicalideas flowed so easily on any instrumental combina-tion that he wrote for and he was full of musical ideasand the colours he produced in the orchestrationwere fresh and inspired with each change of instru-mentation; his ability to make full use of each instru-ment’s possibilities was impressive. The four move-ment Duo for Flute and Harp (1958) was very beauti-ful; the String Quartet No. 7 performed by the TippettString Quartet was so engaging, that I felt absolutelycompelled to listen and didn’t want the music to stop;and hus it continued with Shine and Shade:Variations in Contrasting Hue for recorder and harpsi-chord performed by Richard Harvey and Maggie Cole;Second Invention from Book 5 for solo harpsichordperformed by Maggie Cole; Sonatina for Solo Violinperformed by Benedict Cruft; ending with the Sonatafor Brass Quintet (1963) performed by the Zone 6Brass Ensemble.

Stephen Dodgson’s wife, Jane Dodgson (née Clark)is a professional musician – a harpsichord player –and so Stephen Dodgson wrote many pieces for harp-sichord, which have been welcomed by harpsi-chordists, who are very excited to explore contempo-rary music on their instruments. It was a concert thatwill remain with me for years to come.


JOSÉ TORRES TRIOPurcell Room, London. 8 October 2013.This was the flamenco guitarist José Torres’ firstperformance in London. His Trio combines fla-menco guitar with a full drum kit played by theFinnish percussionist Karo Sampela and theunusual addition of the viola played by JasioVelasco. It all seemed like a very good idea, how-ever, the viola player’s contributions were morepointillist in style, adding notes here and therebut nothing solid for us to catch onto; he seemedmore interested in showing how much like a gui-tar he could be, preferring to hold the instrumenthorizontal and pluck or strum the strings whichrendered them inaudible at times, despite the useof a microphone.

I found it difficult to find a focus in each of thecompositions that José Torres played, each travel-ling away from the traditional flamenco struc-tures, but not making a musical statement. Therewas some novelty in José Torres’s use of the ‘spi-der capo’, which blocks only certain strings. It is agreat idea but it needs to be put to a more musi-cal end, to move it past the novelty factor.

The flamenco dancer Melissa Calero, who was aguest performer on this occasion, seems to intu-itively follow the musical meanderings of the Triowith a strong sense of connection. This was reallyheld the performance together. Her dancing wasfocused, creative and a pleasure to watch.


JENS BANG-RASMUSSENBolívar Hall, London. 18 October 2013.There was a very small audience for this first con-cert of Jens Bang-Rasmussen. This was Danishguitarist, Jens Bang-Rasmussen’s first concert inLondon. He has a very clear idea of the interpreta-tion he wants to achieve and the bass linemelodies always sing through clearly but unfortu-nately much of the other supporting musical linesin the pieces are less easy to follow because ofdead and unclear notes in the Serenata Españolaby Joaquín Malats and the Spanish Dance No. 5 byEnrique Granados.

The Danish composer Kim Helweg wroteAndagio for Jens Bang-Rasmussen as a prepara-tion study for a work for cello and guitar, explor-ing the possibilities of the instrument. Andagiomade good use of the guitars timbral possibilities,so it will be interesting to see the final piece forcello and guitar.

Jens Bang-Rasmussen introduced us to somevery pleasing Danish nineteenth-century reper-toire which he has researched and published; heperformed only solo works such as Polonaise, Op.2 No. 1 by Henrik Rung (1807–1871) and March bySøffen Degen (1816–1885) on this evening butexplained that both composers had written a greatnumber of works for the guitar in chamber ensem-bles as well and much of it written for young play-ers. Rung’s Polonaise has a sweetly singingmelody, which Jens Bang-Rasmussen performedwith clarity and technical control.


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Manual de la guitarra flamencaTécnicas, Estilos básicos y falsetasby Paco SerranoGuitart Flamenco Edition

OverviewPaco Serrano, as regular readers of this columnwill know, is one of my favourite flamenco gui-tarists. He is also one of the few to have pursueda formal degree in music, thus enabling him totake up his present position as Professor at theCórdoba Conservatory.

This is his flamenco guitar method. It is notaimed at absolute beginners, but assumes a mod-erate familiarity with the guitar, including theability to play basic chords, scales, arpeggios, etc.It shares this approach with other good-qualitymethods, such as Dennis Koster’s and GerhardGraf-Martínez’s.

However, should you be a rock-bottom beginner,there are several other good methods availablethat do start from scratch. I would recommendthose of Juan Martín (El Arte Flamenco de laGuitarra), Juan Serrano (Basic Techniques) andJuan Grecos (The Flamenco Guitar—now out ofprint, but obtainable second hand). And of coursea good teacher cannot be too strongly recom-mended.

PresentationEverything is included in the PAL DVD, whichcomes in a case that is slim but of standard heightand width, thus fitting into the usual DVD stor-age. The material consists of a spoken introduc-tion; a section on basic techniques, with com-mentary; another on basic phrases of the compás;and then a variety of Paco’s own falsetas, playedboth slowly and up to tempo, as one would expect.The technical standard of these latter is low- tomiddle-intermediate, with perhaps a couple ofhigh-intermediates.

The language throughout is Spanish. Also onthe DVD are translations of all Paco’s commentsinto English and Italian, and the sheet music ofthe compás variations and the falsetas.

The music consists of PDFs; but for someinscrutable reason, the translations are Worddocs, so you will need some app capable of read-ing these (even more strangely, the ItalianIntroduction is a .docx file, although the othersare .docs). The PDFs have no page-numbers, def-initely an oversight.

The falsetas are given in staff notation and tab;but for some reason, the compás variations are onlyin the former. Sharp signs are, fairly self-evidently,

missing on the Gs of the final bars of the 2nd to5th systems of the soleá.

Paco’s comments are also subtitled in Italian onthe DVD. The Subtitle button on your remoteallows you to switch to English, or turn the subti-tles off (but if your child has dropped the remotein the goldfish bowl, you’re stuck with the Italian).

ContentsThe techniques demonstrated in the second sec-tion include thumb, three kinds of rasgueado,arpeggios and alzapúa. Some nice falsetas areinvolved in demonstrating these, but are notnotated in the books. They should, however, beeasy enough to pick up visually and by ear,should you feel so inclined.

Then comes the material on specific toques. Thebasic phrases of the compás are demonstrated foreach; and then several falsetas are played for aselection of the styles. The styles illustrated are asfollows; the numbers in parentheses are the num-ber of falsetas given for each:

• Soleá (5)• Fandangos de Huelva (5)• Fandango “abandolao” (i.e. Verdiales, etc.)• Tangos (5)• Tientos

RINCÓN FLAMENCONo.70: DVD/Book Reviews

By PAUL MAGNUSSEN


• Seguiriyas (5)• Bulerías (4)• Colombianas• Tarantos• Garrotín• Farruca (3)• Alegrías (5)• Peteneras• Guajiras

The compás of garrotín is given in its traditionalkey of A, not Sabicas’s habitual one of C. An anom-aly is that the compás of alegrías is given in E, butthe falsetas are in C.

Printing problemsI had some bizarre problems printing the PDFs on aMac using Acrobat. Although the Falsetas bookletwas completely OK, a couple of pages of the BasicTechniques booklet—the bulería and the petenera—refused to print properly, although I tried severaldifferent new and old versions. One gave the errormessage “Insufficient data for an image”.

However, Preview did print the pages properly;and of course it comes free with the machine. So ifyou have a Mac I suggest you use that.

On a PC using Acrobat Pro 9, on the other hand,everything seemed OK.

The Document Summary says that it was pro-duced by OpenOffice 3. I seem to remember thatAcrobat on the Mac is pickier about PostScript syn-tax than on the PC, and this might be the reason for

the problem on the Mac. I have notified Paco aboutit and will report any developments.

SummaryThe idea of putting the documentation on the DVDis a good one, keeping down the bulk and cost—especially a problem with tutorials in more than onelanguage.

But the overwhelming virtue of this method tomy mind is the attractiveness of the falsetas(even the simplest) which are modern-sounding(and often syncopated) without being outré, andmostly within technical reach of all but near-beginners.

I make the total time of the DVD somewhat overan hour. It seems a pity that it’s not double-sided, so as to tap the American market as well;but so much other material is also unavailable inNTSC that if you’re an American aficionado, aninternational DVD player really seems de rigeur.

España en Dos Guitarras (Dúos de Guitarra Flamenca)Compositions by Sabicas & EscuderoTranscribed and played by David Leiva2 DVDs with books of transcriptionsRGB Arte Visual (Madrid)

OverviewSabicas & Escudero only ever produced two albumsof flamenco guitar duets together; but these wereenough to establish them almost certainly as the

greatest such duo of all time, a model for the laterduets of (for example) Paco de Lucía andRicardo Modrego.

El records commendably reissued both ofthese albums on a single CD (reviewed in CG03/12); but transcriptions have been thin onthe ground. My own of the bulería fromFantastic Guitars appeared in CG of 09/04;Paco Peña and John Williams can be seen play-ing the farruca from the same album onYouTube. But the only other previous tran-scriptions I’m aware of are Alain Faucher’s.

Sr. Leiva is Professor of Flamenco Guitar atthe Barcelona Conservatory. Now he has tran-scribed six of the pieces from the other album,reissued over the years under various titlesbefore él’s definitive edition. The transcriptionscome in two volumes, each consisting of oneDVD and one book, as follows:

Vol. 1Alegrías «Solera gaditana»Tientos «Camino del monte»Trémolo «Improvisación»

Vol. 2Seguiriya «Sentimiento flamenco»Farruca «La farruca»Sevillanas «Sevillanas corraleras»

The BooksFirst there are an introduction and a table ofsymbols in Spanish, English and Japanese, thesame for each volume. The transcriptions arethen presented in staff notation and tablature(cifra), the second below the first

The books are spiral-bound to open flat.

The DVDsThe DVDs are an amazing job. They are double-sided PAL/NTSC. The menus are in the lan-guages mentioned above.

• The first menu lets you select a piece, ateither full or slow speed.

• The next lets you choose either or both gui-tars, with or without the compás-beat of acajón, in any combination (with little pictures ofthe instruments), or just the beat of the compáswith the picture.

• The next lets you choose which phrase youwant to start at, and whether you want it tocycle continuously or keep going (little cassette-player icons). If you choose to cycle, the Skipbutton moves you on.

• When you press Play, you get (using the duosetting as an example):

• At the top of the screen, separate pictures of SrLeiva’s left and right hands for the 1st guitar.


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Letters to the EditorLetters for publication should be kept short and to the point. We reserve the right to edit or abbreviate as we consider necessary. Please enclose a prepaid envelope if you want a reply.

THE OTHER day I read a good review of my 5 Etudesfor guitar published in Classical Guitar Magazine,March 2012. It is written by Chris Dumigan.

Yes, it's a long time ago but I think it is good to letyou know about your mistake.

In that review I passed away in 2010. That BoHansson was an organ player in progressive rockmusic and composed i.e. The Lord of the rings.

I am a composer and guitarist in the classical areaand I am still alive and healthy!!!

Welcome to visit www.bohansson.com for informa-tion about me.

BO HANSSONSweden

My mistake. I had of course heard of the ‘Lord of theRings’ Bo Hansson, and it never occurred to me thatthere would be two composers with exactly the samename. My humble apologies and best wishes go to thisMr. Hansson

Chris Dumigan

Publishers take note: a simple way to avoid theDoppelgänger phenomenon is to include at least somebasic biographical details in the Preface. A fair propor-tion of publications come with little or no informationregarding the composer or the music. Reviewers expectto do some research when reviewing but the extra infor-mation always helps. Ed.

• The same for the 2nd guitar at the bottom

• The tab, with the beats of the compásmarked, below each hand, and a position indi-cator moving with the music (if you haveFinale, you’ll be familiar with this feature).

• If you have a button on your remote forCamera Angle, you can even control that!

SummaryEspaña en Dos Guitarras is differentiated fromFantastic Guitars by the fact of having moder-ately decent stereo separation, which makes itmuch easier to transcribe—the latter isfiendish, I know from experience.

I haven’t been through the pieces to make anote-by-note comparison with the originals; butthey sound accurate to me, and I’ve been lis-tening to these albums for decades. The onlyreservation I have is that the sevillanas areshown with the capo at the same positionthroughout. I think Sabas or Mario may havecheated and moved the capo—for example, onSevillana 3: the C-shapes are considerably eas-ier if you put it four frets up. But that’s trivial.

So congratulations to Sr. Leiva for producinga landmark in the literature.

OSCAR CASTRO-NEVES was born15 May 1940, in Rio de Janeiro,Brazil. From a musical familyCastro-Neves was one of eight chil-dren. He took up the cavaquinho, asmall, traditional Brazilian guitar,and piano from an early age with theencouragement of his mother, whoplayed the guitar, and an uncle whoplayed the cello..

By the time he was 16 Castro-Neves had become a popular suc-cess in Brazil. A well-known record-ing artist heard Castro-Neves play ata party in Rio. Castro-Neves’s com-position "Chora Tua Tristeza" (CryYour Sadness) went to the top of theBrazilian charts. Castro-Neves and three of hisbrothers started a quartet that played in anaround Rio. Castro-Neves, together withAntonio Carlos Jobim and others, became partof the then new bossa nova movement.

When he was 22 years old Castro-Neves went tothe USA and played in an early Bossa Nova con-cert at the Carnegie Hall in New York. In 1966, hedecided to move permanently to the U.S.A, wherehis exceptional guitar technique and originalmusicality quickly received wide critical acclaim.

He toured throughout the USA play-ing in concert with saxophonist StanGetz, Lalo Schifrin, Sergio Mendes,Frank Sinatra and other householdnames. Castro-Neves lived inSouthern California and wrote andarranged the music for a number ofHollywood films, including ‘Blame Iton Rio’, ‘Sister Act II’, ‘Back in theHabit’, ‘L.A. Story’ and ‘Dirty RottenScoundrels’. He also wrote themusic for the US television series‘Watching Ellie’.

Over his long career Castro-Nevesworked with some of the world’sfinest musicians including Yo Yo Ma,Michael Jackson, Barbra Streisand,

Stevie Wonder, João Gilberto, Eliane Elias, LeeRitenour, Airto Moreira, Toots Thielemans, JohnKlemmer, Carol Welsman and Diane Schuur.During the 1970s and early 1980s he was mem-ber of the Paul Winter Consort.

Oscar Castro-Neves, after a long battle withcancer, died 27 September 2013 in LosAngeles, USA. He is survived by his wifeLorraine, daughters Felicia and Bianca andfour grandchildren.

Maurice J. Summerfield

OSCAR CASTRO-NEVES1940 – 2013

AVONAdam Khan, 64 Winchester Road, Bristol, Avon BS43NH. Tel. 0117 972 1942.The Spanish Guitar Centre, 103 Cold HarbourRoad, Westbury Park, Bristol BS6 7SD. Tel. 0117942 0479.BEDFORDSHIREBertram Whitton, LTCL, TD, 94 Chiltern Road,Dunstable, Beds LU6 1ES. Tel. 01582 603 185.BIRMINGHAMThe Classical Guitar Centre, 51A, St Mary’s Road,Bearwood, West Midlands B67 5DH. Tel. 0121 4297446.email: [email protected] Gough, MA, honBC. Tel. 07702 742 418.email: [email protected] Larner, BMus (Hons), PgDip, Birmingham. Tel.07736 839 134.www.liz-larner.co.ukBUCKINGHAMSHIRE Nicholas Tillyer, ALCM, 40 Pheasant Drive, HighWycombe, Bucks HP13 5JL. Tel. 01494 533 669.DERBYSHIRE Steve Marsh, ALCM, Ashlea, Wyedale Drive,Bakewell DE45 1BB. Tel. 01629 813 624.email: stevemarsh@theguitarstudio.freeserve.co.ukwww.stevemarsh.uk.comGaynor Sams, Springfield Farm, Sitwell GrangeLane, Pilsley, Chesterfield, Derbyshire S45 8EN. Tel.01773 872 548.DEVON & CORNWALLCatherine Thom, Mmus, FTCL, Bmus (Hons), LTCL,LRAM, Higher Old Clims Farm, Pempwell, StokeClimsland, Callington, Cornwall PL17 8LN. Tel.01579 370 700.email: [email protected] DORSET Guy Bacon, Mmus, LTCL, 46 Church Street, LymeRegis DT7 3DA. Tel. 07968 444 579.email: [email protected] Kenyon, BA Dip ABRSM, 36 PoundburyCrescent, Dorchester DT1 2NX. Tel. 01305 257 099. email: [email protected] Peter Nuttall, Rifle Range Cottage, Queens ParkWest Drive, Bournemouth BH8 9BY. Tel. 01202 949988.DURHAMRichard Crawshaw, LWCMD, PGCE (Music), QTS,69 Nunnery Lane, Darlington DL3 9PW. Tel. 07794293 722.email: [email protected] Judith Tonge, ABSM, 6 St. Kildas Road, Brentwood,Essex CM15 9EX. Tel. 01277 217 812. Carl Vaughan BA (Hons), ALCM, 15 Norsey ViewDrive, Billericay CM12 0QR. Tel. 01277 656 741.email: [email protected] Shaun Kennedy, ATCL, 51 Churchill Road,Gloucester GL1 5BS. Tel. 01452 537 344.Nick Morrow Brown, LTCL, 9 Cecily Hill,Cirencester GL7 2EF. Tel. 01285 644 579.email: [email protected] Pettit, LGSM, LTCL, 46 CourtenayStreet, Cheltenham, Glos GL50 4LR. Tel. 01242 583408.HERTFORDSHIRE Neil Simon, 20 Bull Stag Green, Hatfield, Herts,AL9 5DE. Tel. 01707 267 511.LANCASHIRE Ed Billingham, ALCM, PGdipRNCM, tel. 07963 440071.email: edbillingham@guitarist312.wanadoo.co.ukwww.edwardbillingham.comRobert Birch, 3 West Drive Bury, BL9 5DN Tel.01617 611 876.email: [email protected] Dumigan, 14 Rochester Road, Davyhulme,Manchester M41 0RL. Tel. 0161 747 3851.email: chris.dumigan@googlemail.comwww.guitarteachermanchester.co.ukPaul Fowles, BA, LLCM, A.Mus.TCL, c/oManchester Guitar Circle, Flixton House, FlixtonRoad, Manchester M41 5GJ. Tel. 07831 416 358.email: [email protected] Jane Gleave-Pickett, Ba Hons PGCE, The ClassicalGuitar Studio, 43 Kingsfield Drive, Didsbury,Manchester M20 6HX. Tel. 0161 434 7837, mob.07939 241 007.email: [email protected] Houghton, ALCM, 29 Alcester Road, WestDerby, Liverpool L12 9EA. Tel. 0779 017 4465.email: [email protected]

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email: [email protected] www.miolin.comUSARupert Boyd, New York.email: [email protected] Calmes, DMA, New Jersey. Tel. 732 688 3861.email: [email protected] Allen Cope, Guitar Arts Academy, 202617th St, Bakersfield, CA 93301-4251. Tel. 661 3319179. www.guitarartsacademy.com Craig Yarbrough, 312 West Cedar Ave, Flagstaff,Arizona 86001. Tel. 928 213 0752. email: [email protected]


Berkshire Guitar Society, Richard Butters, 10 TheDell, Woodlands Park, Maidenhead, Berks SL63NS.www.berkshireguitarsociety.org.uk Birmingham Classical Guitar, small informalmeetings on a monthly basis. See web page on YahooGroups or contact: Paul Grant, tel. 07760 175 626.Blackburn Classical Guitar Society, JackWilkinson, 82 Queen Street, Great Harwood, LancsBB6 7AL. Tel. 01254 889 555.email: [email protected] Bridge Guitar Circle, meets Central Library, AlbionSt, Hull. Contact: Secretary, Sue Jones, 34 RockfordAvenue, Hull. Tel. 01482 75684.Brighton Classical Guitar, small informal groupmeets every fourth Thursday. Contact: JimWestbrook, tel. 01273 746 192.Bristol Classical Guitar Society, meets on secondand fourth Thursday each month at The PierianCentre, Portland Square, Bristol at 8pm. Contact:David Evans, tel. 0117 956 7251, or Tony Lewis, tel.0117 973 4070. www.bristolclassicalguitarsociety.orgBritish BMG Federation, Secretary: SandraWoodruff, 104 Tower Road North, Warmley, BristolBS30 8XN.email: [email protected] www.banjomandolinguitar.orgBromley Guitar Society, contact: Denis Stockton,tel. 020 8777 4887.www.bromleyguitarsociety.org.uk Cambridge Classical Guitar Society, meets firstThursday each month. Contact: Tim Christmas, tel.01223 565 552.Cambridge Guitar Orchestra, a performing ensem-ble, which rehearses every two weeks on Sundaysduring term time near Cambridge; intermediate oradvanced players are welcome. www.cgo.org.ukCanterbury Guitar Society, contact: John Kemp,tel. 01227 265 503.email: [email protected] Chester Guitar Circle, meets first Wednesday eachmonth at Chester Deaf Centre, Southview Road,Chester. Contact: Secretary, Alastair Gambling, 16Daleside Chester CH2 1EP. Tel. 01270 760 638.email: [email protected] Classical Guitar Society of East London, informalmeetings on last Saturday each month at 3pm.Contact: Maria Sentivani, tel. 020 507 8299. Derby Classical Guitar Society, contact: NigelHarris, 9 Glamis Close, Oakwood, Derby DE21 2QJ.Tel. 01332 664 425.email: [email protected] Guitar Society, meets on third Sunday eachmonth at Kinson Community Centre, Pelhams Park,Milham Lane, Kinson. Contact: Margaret Tredwell,Secretary, tel. 01425 613 739.Durham University Guitar Society, c/o DunelmHouse, New Elvet, Durham. Contact: Elaine Young,Secretary, Van Mildert College, Durham. Visitingtutor: Peter Batchelar.Ealing Guitar Society, meets first Sunday eachmonth at St Matthew’s Church Hall, North CommonRoad, Ealing W5 at 7.30pm. Contact: Steve Dell,Flat J, 10 Sutherland Road, West Ealing, LondonW13 0DT. Tel. 020 8621 1394.www.guitarsociety.blogspot.comEnfield Classical Guitar Society, contact:Secretary, Mrs J. Warwick, 43 Morley Hill, Enfield,Middlesex EN2 0BL.email: [email protected] www.enfieldclassicalguitarsociety.org.ukFarnham – Mozart Guitar Players meet everyTuesday during term time. Contact: MusicalDirector, Myer Rosen, Knowsley, 7 Ash Grove,Guildford GU2 5UT. Tel. 01483 35852.Federation of Guitar Societies UK, a group ofsocieties mainly in the South of England that coor-dinate their activities through an annual meetingand concert in June.email: [email protected]

Fretful Federation Plucked Orchestra, an orches-tra of mandolins, mandolas, mandocellos, guitars andmandobass in Brighton. New members are welcome.Contact: Ian, tel. 07939 368 874.Gloucestershire Guitar Society, The Pavilion,Cheltenham, GL51 6PN. Contact: SimonCartwright, tel. 07500 804 367.email: [email protected] Classical Guitar Club, an informalgroup meeting every Friday 7.30–8.30pm at theGreenwood Centre, School Road, Hampton Hill,Middlesex TW12 1QL. Contact: Martin Shaw, tel.020 8891 6889, or simply turn up. Hampshire Area Guitar Orchestra, meets fort-nightly and has vacancies for intermediate andadvanced ensemble players. Contact: Derek Hasted,tel. 023 9247 9200.email: [email protected] Hastings & Rother Classical Guitar Society,meets on third Wednesday each month at TheBeacon below St Mary’s Terrace, West Hill, Hastingsat 8pm. Contact: Richard Butler, tel. 01424 465414.www.hrcgs.org.ukHaverhill Classical Guitar Society, contact: ColinShulman, tel. 01440 705 371.Hereford Guitar Ensemble, contact: RobinBurgess, tel. 01432 340 515.email: [email protected] Guitar Orchestra, meets twicemonthly and is always looking for good ensembleplayers. Contact: Tom Parsons, tel. 01923 245 559. www.hertfordshireguitarorchestra.comHighland Classical Guitar Society, c/o RogerNiven, ‘Iona’, High Street, Avoch, Rosshire. Tel.Fortrose 21012. Hounslow Guitar Society, Hounslow Music Service,De Brome Building, Boundaries Road, FelthamTW13 5DT.Lauderdale Guitar Society, meets on secondMonday each month at Lauderdale House, HighgateHill, London N6 5HG.email: [email protected] Lute Society, contact: Secretary, ChrisGoodwin, Southside Cottage, Brook Hill, Albury,Guildford, Surrey GU5 9DJ. Tel. 01483 202 159, fax01483 203 088.Manchester Acoustic Guitar, meets on thirdTuesday each month at the Urmston Cricket andLawn Tennis Club, Moorside Rd, Urmston. Allacoustic and classical guitar styles welcome. All youneed is an interest in the guitar, not necessarily to beable to play. Contact: Chris, tel. 0161 747 3851.www.manchesteracousticguitar.com Manchester Guitar Circle, est. 1946. Informalevenings on first Thursday each month at FlixtonHouse, Flixton Road (opposite Rothiemay Road),Manchester M41 5GJ. Visitors always welcome.Contact: Paul Fowles, tel. 07831 416 358.email: [email protected] Midland Guitar Society, Contact: Gaynor Sams, tel.01773 872 548. Midlands Fretted Orchestra, meets fortnightly onThursdays at St. Mary’s Hall, St. Mary’s Road,Bearwood Smethwick, B67 5DH at 7.30pm.Contact: Danielle Saxon Reeves, tel. 01384 893987.email: [email protected] National Youth Guitar Ensemble (NYGE),Musical Director: Gerald Garcia, Coordinator andAdministrator: Liz Larner, tel. 0773 683 9134.email: [email protected] Newent Guitar Society, contact: Secretary, KeithSandall, Holts House, Holts Road, Newent, GlosGL18 1BT. Tel. 01531 820 436.Norfolk and Norwich Classical Guitar Club, meetsfortnightly in Norwich, contact: Tom Llewellyn, tel.07903 501 519.email: [email protected]

North Bucks Guitar Club, meets on third Sundayeach month. Contact: Kevin Cook, tel. 01296 427836.www.northbucksguitarclub.org.ukNorth Devon Guitar Society, meets on thirdTuesday each month in Barnstaple. Contact: TerryBourne, North Lodge, Filleigh, near Barnstaple,North Devon EX32 ORE. Tel. 01271 74529.North East England Classical Guitar Society,with the Newcastle Guitar Orchestra, which meetsalternate Wednesday evenings in King’s Hall,Newcastle University. email: enquiries@northeastclassicalguitar.co.ukwww.northeastclassicalguitar.co.ukNorth East Scotland Classical Guitar Society,meets on second Monday each month at Queen’sCross Church, Aberdeen. Contact: Peter Stock(chairman), tel. 01467 642 729.email: [email protected] www.nescgs.co.uk The Northumbria Guitar Society, contact: PeteBoothby, Engine Cottage, Accomb, Hexham NE464RL. Tel. 01434 600 340.North Wales Guitar Circle, meets on secondTuesday each month at The Anglesey Arms, MenaiBridge, Anglesey at 7.45pm. Contact: Jane or DaveSinnett, tel. 01407 831 480.email: [email protected] Nottingham Classical Guitar Society, contact: IanJones, tel. 0115 923 1038.email: [email protected] Oxford Guitar Society, Denis Arnold Hall, Facultyof Music St Aldate’s Oxford OX1 1DB, meets thelast Wednesday each month. Contact: StevenGreenslade, tel. 07989 240 195.email: [email protected]ña Flamenca de Hull, meets on first Sundayeach month at the Blue Bell, Hull at 8pm. Contact:Secretary, Ron Burbela, 40 Warton Avenue,Beverley, E. Yorks HU17 0JB. Tel. 01482 863 553.Peña Flamenca de Londres, contact: Secretary,Ron le Voi, Flat 6, 45/53 Myddelton Square, LondonEC1R 1YD.Pendon Guitar Society, contact: Peter Li, 15 KingHenry Mews, Harrow-on-the-Hill, HA2 0JS. Tel.020 8423 3202.Putney Guitar Society, contact: Secretary, ChrisBlade, 18 Gwendwr Road, West Kensington, LondonW14 9BG. Tel. 0171 603 1820.Richmond Guitar Society, meets on fourth Sundayeach month at Richmond Parish Rooms, ChurchWalk, Richmond upon Thames, Surrey from 7–9pm.Tel. 020 8891 6889.Saddleworth Classical Guitar Society, contact:Hazel and Colin Davies, tel. 01457 875 378.Southampton Classical Guitar Society, meets onlast Wednesday of each month at 7.45pm. Contact:Wayne Lines, tel. 01329 310 792.wwv.scgs-guitar.org.uk South Lincolnshire Guitar Society andOrchestra, meets fortnightly on Tuesdays at CentralSchool, Grantham. Contact: Peter Constable, TheElms, 3 Sleaford Road, Ruskington, Lincs NG349BP. Tel. 01526 834 120.South Wales Guitar Society, contact:Chairperson, Kate Williams, 18 WestbourneCrescent, Whitchurch, Cardiff. Tel. 02920 339 590.Surrey Guitar Society, meets on secondWednesday each month at Tanyard Hall, Gomshallat 8pm. Contact: George Swallow, tel. 01306 886196.Swansea Classical Guitar Circle, meets everyWednesday at Sketty Park Community Centre at7.15pm. Contact: Secretary, Graham Davies, tel.01792 541 799.Warwickshire Spanish Guitar Society, contact:Peter Pettifor, 73 Lodge Road, Stratford-upon-AvonCV37 9DN. Tel. 01789 263 697.email: [email protected] Guitar Society, meets on secondWednesday each month at the Frant Church, Frant,Tunbridge Wells. Contact: Tom Rimmer, tel. 01892740 322 or Ray Love, tel. 01732 832 459.

Classical Guitar Societies Directory


West Sussex Guitar Club, The Regis School ofMusic, 46 Sudley Road, Bognor Regis, West SussexPO21 1ER. Tel. 01243 866 462.www.westsussexguitar.org West Yorkshire Classical Guitar Society, contact:Secretary, Michael Christian Durrant. Tel. 07706213 271.email: [email protected] Classical Guitar Group, contact:Jonathan Priestley, 5 Cooks Yard, West End,Wirksworth, Derbyshire. Tel. 01629 825 129.Worcester Classical Guitar Society, a performingsociety of junior and senior orchestras and ensem-bles, meeting regularly during term time. Contact:Andrew Filer. Tel. 0121 445 3345.email: [email protected] www.worcesterguitar.co.uk ARGENTINA Musical Centre ‘Franz Liszt’, Directresses: Ana M.Polinori and Mariana Vlaho, Montevideo 967(1019), Buenos Aires.AUSTRALIA Canberra Classical Guitar Society, meetings are onthird Sunday each month at Wesley Uniting Church inForrest, Canberra from 2.30–4.30pm.www.classicalguitarcanberra.org.au Classical Guitar Society of South Australia,Lincoln Brady, 19 Emerson Drive, Morphett-Vale,Adelaide, SA 5162. Tel. 08 832 51052. The Classical Guitar Society Sydney, PO Box 829,Bondi Junction, N.S.W. 1355. Tel. 02 9453 3113. Classical Guitar Society of Victoria, theMelbourne branch meets on second Tuesday eachmonth at St Stephens Church, 360 Church Road,Richmond. The Geelong group meets on lastWednesday each month at Vines Road CommunityCentre, Hamlyn Heights.www.melbourneguitar.comClassical Guitar Society of Western Australia,contact: PO Box 201, Karrinyup, Western Australia6921.www.guitarwa.com.auHobart Guitar Society, tel. 03 6224 6655.www.hobartguitarsociety.orgBULGARIA Classical Guitar Association (CGA), PO Box 879,40900 Plovdiv. BRAZIL BRAVIO- Associacao Brasiliense de Violao, QI 25bl. L apt. 501 – Cond. Sgto Wolff, Guara 2, Brasilia,DF 71060-250. Tel. +55 61 3567 6589, or 99685528.email: [email protected] www.bravio.blogspot.com Fernando Sor Guitar Association, Géris LopesConsalter, Rodovia BR 116 No. 12500, b. São Ciro‘brasdiesel’, Caxias do Sul, RS 95055-180.BULGARIAAssociation of Guitarists in Bulgaria, 11 OtetsPaisiy Street, 2500 Kyustendil. Tel. +359 887651034.email: [email protected] Guitar Hamilton, Hamilton, Ontario, Director:Emma Rush. Tel. 905 807 4792.email: [email protected] Society of Toronto, 3 Benson Ave.Mississauga, L5H 2P1. Tel. 416 964 8298.www.guitarsocietyoftoronto.com The Halifax Guitar Society, 6199 Chebucto Road,Halifax, Nova Scotia, B3L 1KY. Tel. 902 423 6995.email: [email protected] Guitar Concert Association, 1807Collingwood St, Vancouver, BC, V6R 3KA.COSTA RICA Asociación Guitarristica Costarricense, Apartado373-1009, San José, Costa Rica. Tel. 21 44 53. CZECH REPUBLIC Classical Guitar Society, The Czech Music Society,Vladislav Blaha, Renneska 25 639 00 Brno. Tel./fax+420 543 242 407.DENMARK The Danish Guitar Society, c/o Jeff Duckett,Karlemosevej 7, 4.tv., 4600 Koege.email: [email protected] EGYPT Cairo Classical Guitar Society, President: Sherif S.El-Salhy, 7 Abdel-Hamid Said St, Apt. 22, Maarouf,Cairo 11111. Tel. +202 575 8097, fax +202 3414168.FINLAND Helsinki Guitar Society, President: Jussi-PekkaRannanmäki. Vanha Sotilastie 3, 00850 Helsinki. GERMANY Koblenz International Guitar Society e.V.,Bahnhofstraße 58, 56068 Koblenz. Tel. 0261 973 7265.email: [email protected] u. Gitarre, meets on first Sunday each monthat Bistro Stadthalle Dillingen/Saar, 10.30am.Contact: Dietmar Kunzler, MittelstraBe 69a, 66126Saarbrücken.

HONG KONG Hong Kong Guitar Information Alliance, G/F 14Nanking Street, Yaumatei, Kowloon. Tel. 852 27804864, fax 852 2770 5520.IRELAND Classical Guitar Society for Northern Ireland,meets on first Sunday each month at the UlsterCollege of Music, Belfast. Contact: Keith Thompson,tel. 028 9070 3311.email: [email protected] www.cgsni.org Cork Classical Guitar Circle, est. 1960, meets onlast Wednesday each month at Cork Arts SocietyRooms. Contact: Secretary and Treasurer, LaurenceEgar, Herbert Park, Cork. Tel. 021 504 832.Dublin Classical Guitar Society, meets lastThursday each month at Booterstown Parish Centre,Booterstown Ave, Blackrock.email: [email protected] ISRAEL The Guitar Society of Israel, The Rubin Museum,Bialik St. 14. Tel-Aviv 65241.ITALY Florence Guitar Association, Via del Bargellino 15,50014 Fiesole, Firenze. Tel. 055 597 012.JAPAN International Guitar Orchestra Association, 143-14 Fujisawa, Fujisawa-shi Kanagawa-ken, 251-0052. Tel. +81 466 23 8338, fax +81 466 23 9337.Japan Federation of Guitaristsis, est. 1966, AkiraUgajin, Secretary General, Japan Federation ofGuitarists. Wada Bldg. 5F 6-14-4 Shimbashi,Minano-ku, Tokyo. Tel. +81 3 3438 1819, fax +81 33438 1899.email: [email protected] www.guitarists.or.jp MALAYSIA Alor Setar Classical Guitar Club, contact:Chairman, Chan Kok Peng, 29 Taman Sultan AbdulHalim 05300 Alor Setar, Kedah.Kota Kinabalu Guitar Society, contact: Secretary,Lawrence Chong, HSE. No. D47, Lorong Raja Udang2A, Taman Kingfisher, 88400, Kota Kingbalu, Saba.NETHERLANDSGitaarSalon Guitar Society, Westerstraat 217,1601 AH Enkhuizen. Tel. +31 228 562 469.email: [email protected] ZEALANDNew Plymouth Classical Guitar Society, meets onfirst Sunday each month. Contact: Dominique Blatti,President, tel. 06 752 7400.email: [email protected]://npcgs.weebly.com/society-info.htmlPERU Centro de la Guitarra/Intermusica, Jr. Carabaya421, Lima 01. Tel. 461 4670, or 933 1599, fax 3366442.email: [email protected] POLAND ‘Gitariada’, ul Gdynska 5/g/16, 80-340 Gdansk. Tel.058 578 083.Wroclaw Guitar Society, PO Box 1063, 50-131,Wroclaw. email: [email protected] www.gitara.wroclaw.pl SERBIAYugoslav Association of Classical Guitarists,(Guitar Art Festival) Bosko Radojkovic, director;Bul.Kralja Aleksandra 530, 11000 Belgrade, Serbiaand Montenegro. Tel. +381 64 140 7583, fax +38111 262 3853. email: [email protected] www.gaf.co.yu Yugoslav Guitar Society & Foundation UrosDojcinovic, str. Licka 3–V, ap. 25, 11000 Beograd,Republic of Serbia. Tel./fax (+381 11) 361 4646.email: [email protected] Music Consultants Pte Ltd. 01–97 RoxySquare II, 50 East Coast Road, Singapore 428769.Tel. 65 6344 3671, or 65 6344 3615.email: [email protected] www.tomas-music.com SWEDEN The Swedish Guitar and Lute Society, est. 1968.Contact: Secretary, Erik Möllerström, PO Box24038, S-104 50, Stockholm, Sweden. Tel. +46 8660 1374, or +46 8 1059 82. Annual summer cours-es in July.TURKEY Izmir Guitar Club, Kibris Sehitleri CAD. No. 138/1,D.301 Alsancak, Izmir. Tel. 90 232 464 5287.

USA Austin Classical Guitar Society, PO Box 49704,Austin, TX 78765.Chicago Classical Guitar Society, PO Box 4485,Skokie, IL 60076-4485.www.chicagoclassicalguitarsociety.orgClassical Guitar Society of Upstate New York(CGSUNY), President: Frederic Hellwitz, CGSUNY,8 Banta Place, Stamford, NY 12167. Tel. (607) 8658775.www.cgsuny.orgClassical Guitar Society of Western Carolinas,Roger A. Cope, President, 300 North Main St,Hendersonville, NC 28792-4900. Tel. 704 693 7666.Fax: 704 692 2630.Cleveland Classical Guitar Society, Erik Mann,Executive Director.email: info@clevelandclassicalguitar.orgwww.clevelandclassicalguitar.orgThe Columbus Guitar Society, 120 E. NorthwoodAve, Columbus, OH 43201.The Connecticut Classical Guitar Society, PO Box1528, Hartford, CT 06144-1528.Denver Classical Guitar Society, Patrick M. ‘Rick’Keller, Director. 1601 Ivanhoe, Denver, CO 80220.Tel. 303 321 5690.Grand Canyon Guitar Society, in Flagstaff, Arizona,meets on first Monday each month. Contact: CraigYarbrough, Executive Director, tel. 928 213 0752.www.canyonguitar.org Guitar Houston, 4149 Bellaire Blvd, 229 Houston,TX 77025. Tel. 713 665 2712.www.neosoft.com/~guitar/index.htm Lancaster Classical Guitar Society, for students,professional teachers, performers and enthusiastswith monthly meetings, 2–5 pm last Sunday of month(except July & August) at Ware Center, MillersvilleUniversity, 42 North Prince Street, Lancaster, PA.17603, Ernesto Tamayo, Artistic Director, SteveSchram Executive Director.www.licgs.us/lcgs/#events#eventsLong Island Classical Guitar Society, meets on lastSunday of month (except July & August) with HarrisBecker as Artistic Director. Contact: LICGS ,c/oDennis Rief, Executive Director, 182 Parkside Ave,Miller Place, NY 11764. Tel. 631 821 5270.email: [email protected] www.licgs.us Miami Classical Guitar Society, PO Box 0725,Miami, Florida 33265-0725. Tel. 305 386 3103.Carlos Molina, President.Milwaukee Classical Guitar Society Ltd, 1522East Kane Place, Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53202. Tel.414 765 9398.New Jersey Classical Guitar Society, President:George Schindler, 267 South Street, N. ProvidenceNJ 07974. New York City Classical Guitar Society, meets onfirst Thursday each month, also has an InternationalArtist Series and Salon Series, and NYC GuitarOrchestra. Contact: John Olson, President, PO Box1691, New York, NY 10101.email: [email protected] www.nyccgs.comPhiladelphia Classical Guitar Society, 2038Sansom St. Philadelphia, PA 19103. Tel. 215 5672972.www.PhillyGuitar.orgSt. Louis Classical Guitar Society, William Ash,President, PO Box 11425, St. Louis, MO 63105. email: [email protected] Bay Area Guitar Society, 3310 ChaseJackson Branch, Lutz FL 33559. Contact: EricGuerrazzi, President email: [email protected] Guitar Society, meets the first Thursday ofevery month and presents an International GuitarSeries from October–April. They also host a guitarorchestra. Contact: Julia Pernet, Chairman, PO Box40686, Tuscon, AZ 85717. Tel. 520 577 2814.email: [email protected] Classical Guitar Society, contact: RoyJohnson, Director, 1121 E. 200 So. Salt Lake City,Utah 84102. Tel. 801 364 7431.Washington Guitar Society, c/o President: JohnRodgers, 4500 Connecticut Ave, NW a605Washington, DC 20008. WEST INDIES Classical Guitar Society of Trinidad and Tobago,PO Box 1312. Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago.Contact: Secretary, Stephen Cockburn.

● When sending new listings please state in this order:country, county, full name, qualifi cations, address, tele-phone number email and web address. If changing areas,please also state old country and address so this can easi-ly be deleted.

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