Very old guitar concerti and very new mandolin music
Thursday, Plamen phoned my office to offer his sympathy regarding my brother. Unfortunately, I was on the phone with one of my coworkers when he called, so his call went straight to voice mail. Phoning my office in itself isn't ordinarily so remarkable, and my missing a call isn't ordinarily so terrible a thing, but Plamen was phoning from Bulgaria! He is a fine mandolinist, and we have been corresponding for years. His friendship brought on some cleansing tears.
The University of Cincinnati's annual guitar workshop under Clare Callahan has been running over the past week and is wrapping up tomorrow. I can never do the whole thanks to the day job. Thursday evening, Chad the luthier and I drove to Cincinnati. Guitarist Stanley Yates was giving a concert with a string quartet from the university as part of the workshop festivities.
The program opened with the famous Introduction and Fandango from Boccherini's quintet G. 448. However, the meat of the program was made up by two very early concerti: Charles Doisy's Grande Concerto pour la Guitare in G (written ca. 1802-03) and Giovanni Battista Viotti's Concerto pour la Guitar in e (originally a violin concerto, but arranged for guitar by Doisy in ca. 1804-05). This was the first I'd heard either work (the only other time they'd received modern performance was Stan's in San Diego, 2001). Both concerti were absolute delights! With only one instrument per part, these were well crafted for the guitar to be audible in solo passages, especially the Doisy, high strings usually completely falling out to not filter the softer, more staccato voice of the guitar. The solo parts were quite exciting, especially in the Doisy, rich in hyper-speed and sometimes awkward arpeggio patterns. Occasional pizzicato accompaniments provided a rich and diverse texture. The slow movement of the Viotti also featured some harmonic passages on the guitar to excellent effect.
Doisy wrote cadenzas for the slow movements. However, Stan added brief cadenzas in each fast movement as well. Most notable was the third movement of the Viotti where he slipped in a little quote from Rak's homage to Sibelius! Totally out of character for the era, but it sounded great and was very effective for a rock star-like conclusion. I'm pining for these to make their way to CD, perhaps with Lhoyer's fine concerto.
Carlos Perez is also on the workshop faculty. He seemed genuinely excited to see me. He had brought me a gift: his newly published Variaciones sobre un Villancico Traditional Chileno. He called it something like "a simple little thing." I've been reading through it a bit tonight, and his description was perhaps a little deceptive (or I'm just a stinky mandolinist). The prescribed pick strokes are very effective at creating accent and reinforcing rhythmic device, but they are challenging on first read. I'll have to spend some time committing some things to muscle memory via practice.
After Thursday's concert, beer, of course. Stan had also heard of my brother's death and offered an uncharacteristically somber word of condolence. It's appreciated.
I unfortunately had to leave earlier than I would have liked to make my way to Toledo for Lake Erie's Lakewide Management Plan (LaMP) Forum on Friday morning (there through today and just now home). Lost my cell phone on a cruise of the Maumee in trying to fetch a business card from my wallet. Poop.
The University of Cincinnati's annual guitar workshop under Clare Callahan has been running over the past week and is wrapping up tomorrow. I can never do the whole thanks to the day job. Thursday evening, Chad the luthier and I drove to Cincinnati. Guitarist Stanley Yates was giving a concert with a string quartet from the university as part of the workshop festivities.
The program opened with the famous Introduction and Fandango from Boccherini's quintet G. 448. However, the meat of the program was made up by two very early concerti: Charles Doisy's Grande Concerto pour la Guitare in G (written ca. 1802-03) and Giovanni Battista Viotti's Concerto pour la Guitar in e (originally a violin concerto, but arranged for guitar by Doisy in ca. 1804-05). This was the first I'd heard either work (the only other time they'd received modern performance was Stan's in San Diego, 2001). Both concerti were absolute delights! With only one instrument per part, these were well crafted for the guitar to be audible in solo passages, especially the Doisy, high strings usually completely falling out to not filter the softer, more staccato voice of the guitar. The solo parts were quite exciting, especially in the Doisy, rich in hyper-speed and sometimes awkward arpeggio patterns. Occasional pizzicato accompaniments provided a rich and diverse texture. The slow movement of the Viotti also featured some harmonic passages on the guitar to excellent effect.
Doisy wrote cadenzas for the slow movements. However, Stan added brief cadenzas in each fast movement as well. Most notable was the third movement of the Viotti where he slipped in a little quote from Rak's homage to Sibelius! Totally out of character for the era, but it sounded great and was very effective for a rock star-like conclusion. I'm pining for these to make their way to CD, perhaps with Lhoyer's fine concerto.
Carlos Perez is also on the workshop faculty. He seemed genuinely excited to see me. He had brought me a gift: his newly published Variaciones sobre un Villancico Traditional Chileno. He called it something like "a simple little thing." I've been reading through it a bit tonight, and his description was perhaps a little deceptive (or I'm just a stinky mandolinist). The prescribed pick strokes are very effective at creating accent and reinforcing rhythmic device, but they are challenging on first read. I'll have to spend some time committing some things to muscle memory via practice.
After Thursday's concert, beer, of course. Stan had also heard of my brother's death and offered an uncharacteristically somber word of condolence. It's appreciated.
I unfortunately had to leave earlier than I would have liked to make my way to Toledo for Lake Erie's Lakewide Management Plan (LaMP) Forum on Friday morning (there through today and just now home). Lost my cell phone on a cruise of the Maumee in trying to fetch a business card from my wallet. Poop.