Concert Reviews
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Copenhagen Guitar Duo
Concert Series
Red Maids' Performing Arts Centre
Saturday 23rd November 2019
It pays to get out and about. BCGS members Barry Corbett and Vince Smith saw the Copenhagen Guitar Duo play at the Dillington Guitar Festival last year, and agreed that they duo had to be invited to the Classical Guitar Society’s Concert Series. Martin Buono and Allan Sjølin, still young men, have already been a duo for nearly 20 years. They applied to and graduated from the Royal Danish Academy as a duo, and have been touring together, teaching and working in music education projects ever since.
From the outset tonight, the power of communication between the two players, the quality of their arrangements and their remarkable technique, was clear. The two guitars shared call and response passages, melody and supporting voices, with each player’s personality giving a slightly different touch to the music. Their adaptations of Albéniz’s Suite Española were lyrical, and sensitively understood in their Spanishness. Many of us had not heard the full set of 8 of Granados’ Valses Poéticos, a formidable suite of Parisian-
The music resumed after the interval in a different vein; the Duo are equally at home in classical style and cool jazz mode. The lilting cascades of Assad’s Canção were a delight, the first of two characteristic Brazilian pieces in the programme.
Thus far, all the music had been arrangements by the Duo, but the Suite Copenhagen is their own composition. It contains elements of all their experience – baroque, minimalism, Latin America and draws on a broad resource of standard and extended technique. In the three Piazzolla pieces that followed, they returned to South America. There was equal challenge and reward in the transposition of Piazzolla’s large band onto two guitars: Zita has wonderful light-
The duo were asked for two encores, in which they revealed yet another facet of their arranging and performance skills with themes from the TV series Game of Thrones and the film of Che Guevara’s travels in South America, The Motorcyle Diaries.
The variety of music tonight was wonderful, and the musicality, technique and success of the Duo’s arrangements of the music a delight.
www.copenhagenguitarduo.com
Programme
From Suite Española: Isaac Albéniz (1860–1909)
I Granada
II Cataluña
III Sevilla
Valses Poéticos Enrique Granados (1867–1916)
Danza from “La Vida Breve” Manuel de Falla (1876–1946)
Interval
Canção Sérgio Assad (b. 1952)
Suite Copenhagen Copenhagen Guitar Duo (f. 1986)
Zita Astor Piazzolla (1921–1991)
Tanti Anni Prima
Escolaso
Mas Que Nada Sérgio Mendes (b. 1941)
Cristal César Camargo (b. 1943)
Duo Canella-
Concert Series
Red Maids' Performing Arts Centre
Saturday 27 April 2019
The Duo Cannella-
fresh historical insight into the guitar. They play 19th century Panormo instruments strung with synthetic gut, but embrace music not only of that period, but also genres as diverse as American folk song, 20th century atonality and the electric rock of 1960s USA. Tonight we even heard an altogether original rendering of Recuerdos de la Alhambra.
In Romantic-
The arrangement of the opening Bach was daring and intricate, Vincent taking a traditionally ‘guitar 1’ role and Nausicaa ‘guitar 2’ for the most part, with some lovely call-
Vincent kindly explained the programme in English, and told us that Dimitri Shostakovich is one of the Duo’s favourite composers. His contemplative prelude and fugue put the Panormos in new territory, but the dissonances and melancholy style were conveyed with great skill by Vincent and Nausicaa. His Spanish Dance, written as a study, is more fun than the previous one, to use Vincent’s own word, and contains changes in rhythm and challenging high-
The Romantic-
The second fresh stylistic sphere explored this evening was in the folk song Shenandoah. Vincent again supplied an atmospheric prelude, this time in the style of the lap-
Just as the 19th century composers looked for new sounds, so did electric instrumentalists of the late 20th century such as Jimi Hendrix. The Duo next gave a refreshing interpretation of two of his songs, with the Panormos adding to the novelty. The surprises were not at an end, however. As an encore, the Duo regaled us a beautiful performance of Tárrega’s Recuerdos with the tremolo rendered on Vincent’s’ small, pear-
We are grateful to the Duo Cannella-
Nick Regan April 2109
Interval
The Albach Duo
Concert Series
Red Maids' Performing Arts Centre
Saturday 11 November 2017
Rebecca Baulch is known to us not only as
Founder member, with Amanda Cook and Hayley Savage, of the celebrated Appassionata Trio, but in her role as tutor at West Dean guitar summer school and recently for the fascinating talk she gave us this year on staying 'in the zone' while playing in front of others. This evening we were delighted to host Rebecca with David Black, prize-
The programme for this evening's concert was varied: Ireland to Scotland and Wales, Italy to Argentina. From the outset, the set of Irish tunes showed the duo's wonderful mastery of light and shade and of strikingly complex interaction. The nineteenth-
After the interval and a complementary glass of wine, the duo began with a large set of music: the four Scarlatti sonatas. Like Alexandre Lagoya's arrangements of the first and second, Rebecca's arrangements of the second pair gave them an admirable immediacy in both flow and melodic appeal, the duo again displaying very impressive individual and combined virtuosity. The same control and lyricism were present in the set of three folk songs from David's home -
For the final set of pieces, we travelled a long way geographically and stylistically to Argentina and the tango. The Piazzolla was rendered with beautiful atmospherics, effects and the characteristic energetic movement of the tango. David and Rebecca continued to demonstrate easy control of the full range of the guitar's resources -
We were treated to an encore of Abel Fleury's Milonga del Ayer to round of an evening of
great programming, exceptional playing, and the company of two charming and engaging people.
Nick Regan November 2107
Programme
Traditional Irish folk songs (arr. Robin Hill)
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-
-
Duo in a minor Franz Schubert (arr. J. Bream)
A setting of the G minor Quartet Op. Posth. D173
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-
-
Farewell to Stromness Peter Maxwell Davis
Wild Mountain Thyme (arr. David Black)
Traditional Scottish folk song
INTERVAL
Sonata K.159 D major (arr. Lagoya) Domenico Scarlatti
Sonata K.173 D minor (arr. Lagoya)
Sonata K.13 G major (arr. Baulch)
Sonata K.162 E major (arr. Baulch)
Traditional Welsh folk songs (arr. Stephen Goss)
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Lo que vendrá (arr. Austell-
Adiós niño (arr. Baulch) Astor Piazzolla
Milonga Jorge Cardozo
Taquito militar (arr. Coulthard) Mariano Mores
Encore
Milongueo del ayer Abel Fleury
Michael Partington
Concert Series
The Bradbury Centre
Saturday 19 March 2016
Michael Partington, now based in the USA, is in the UK for a series of concerts, and we were delighted to host one of them as part of our Concert Series.
A bright start with the always fresh-
Michael is a champion of new repertoire. The first of the new pieces in tonight's programme was US guitarist and composer Bryan Johansen's La Folia Folio, a set of modern variations on the often-
The wonderful Piazzola set opened the second half, with Michael using his Martin Blackwell double-
The encore, Farewell to Stromness was an apposite choice in the light of the death last week of the composer, Peter Maxwell Davies. Michael did music and composer full justice.
Michael kindly stayed to chat and sign CDs, and later, at the Eastfield Inn, regaled us with fascinating insights into the psychology of the performer, complete with book references and personal anecdotes. We headed home gratefully with that, our new CDs and an excellent concert to digest. Our warm thanks to Michael for a great evening of music.
Nick Regan March 2016
Programme
Rondeau de Concert, Op. 12 Napoleon Coste
1805-
Nocturno Federico Moreno Torroba
Andante (from Sonatina) 1891-
Alcázar de Segovia (from Castillos de España)
Elégie Johann Kaspar Mertz
1806-
La Folia Folio Bryan Johanson
b. 1951
INTERVAL
Las Cuatro Estaciones Porteñas (The Four Astor Piazzolla
Seasons of Buenos Aires) 1921-
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Watts Chapel* Stephen Goss
b. 1964
Mallorca Isaac Albéniz
Cádiz (from Suite española) 1869-
arr. Partington
Encore
Farewell to Stromness (from The Yellow Cake Revue) Peter Maxwell-
1934-
*written for Michael Partington
Concerts we have hosted since 2008