EDITOR'S KEYBOARD     JANUARY 2003

WINTER CONCERTS

    Though it's not much of a winter for snow, Seattle's guitar season is working under full steam. Both of SCGS's premiere series, the Benaroya Guitar concerts and Sunday at the Frye Museum, have been gathering overflow crowds.  Seattle native, Yale trained Daniel Corr played an ambitious program at the Frye on January 12.  From the first Bach keyboard Partita in B-flat major, Corr played the Prelude (transcribed to D).  This is one of the most lyrical and exciting of Bach's keyboard works, and has been recorded by Tilmann Hoppstock.  The Prelude is particularly good with guitar, as Corr brought out the two dominant voices in lovely shades of tone. I wish only that he had gone on to play the rest: the final Gigue is fantastically exciting. Sorry for the hyperbole, but it is.  The Courante is soaring, but perhaps too much because on Hopstock's CD he calls it unplayable on the guitar and substitutes a lesser movement.  The set of six partitas is among Bach's last works for keyboard, and their exploration on the guitar will no doubt continue. (Explore Hoppstock's copious Bach transcriptions at this link: http://www.t-hoppstock.de/engl/verlag.html ).  Daniel Corr continued with Five Bagatelles by Sir William Walton, a modern work with rich and varied sounds and wonderfully clear harmonics, J.S. Bach's second Partita for Violin in D minor, and Etude No.1 by Giulio Regondi.

    The Brazilian Guitar Quartet also packed the Nordstrom Recital Hall at Benaroya Hall.  In the words of The Seattle Post-Intelligencer music critic, R.M.Campbell (27 January p E3),

    " After years of lingering on the edge of the concert platform in town, the guitar has become fashionable. With the move to Nordstrom Recital Hall, the Seattle Classic Guitar Society, which has been presenting guitar concerts for decades, ahs become popular, playing to sold-out houses routinely.....One could say this situation is an embarrassment of riches, but it is not.  Having an opportunity to hear some of the world's greatest guitarists in a good acoustical environment, not to mention a central location and attractive space, is long overdue...

The debut of the Brazilian Guitar Quartet Saturday night at Nordstrom, a part of the guitar society's current season, is a good example. The hall was full of enthusiasts; indeed, the concert was delayed slightly because it took extra time to squeeze everyone into every seat.

Although the members of the quartet are long-established in their field, the group itself is of a newer vintage. Its first North American tour was only three years ago.

Paul Galbraith, the lead guitarist, is the best-known of the four outside Latin America. The British-born musician, who has lived in Brazil since 1996, appeared in Seattle only two years ago on the society's series.

The others are Brazilian: Edelton Gloeden and Tadeu do Amaral, both of whom play the conventional modern six-string guitar, and Everton Gloeden, who plays a remarkably different eight-string guitar, along with Galbraith, whose instrument was designed by himself and luthier David Rubio. What make's Galbraith's guitar even more unusual is the metal endpin that rests on a wooden, acoustically sensitive box. That requires a position similar to a cello or viola da gamba. Although Everton Gloeden does not use an endpin, he plays his guitar in a manner similar to Galbraith.

    The group, with a number of highly regarded recordings in its pocket, devotes time to the advocacy of 20th- and 21st Century Brazilian composers, several of whom it played Saturday night, such as Ronaldo Miranda and Francisco Mignone. It was in this material that the group were at their best; articulate and sympathetic, coupled with the most extraordinary sonorities and striking ensemble."

The full review can be found at http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/classical/105888_brazil27q.shtml

    Upcoming are many promising concerts.  Don't forget the 'other'  guitar series staged in the BIG Benaroya Hall by Seattle Symphony, with Manuel Barrueco and Al Di Meola coming on February 24.   Read the advance notice on the calendar, and the review from Barrueco's SCGS Benaroya concert in 2001 which still lingers on this site, and listen to the EMI cd, !CUBA!, a soft, understated but really inspiring presentation of works by Leo Brouwer, Ernesto Lecuona, Carlos Farinas, Enrique Ubieta, Hector Angelo and Jose Ardevol.

    Two important festivals are coming up soon, rich with contributions from Seattle's guitarists and new compositions: Portland and Bozeman, Montana.

                                                                                              -Peter Rhines