2002 GUITAR SOCIETY ANNUAL HOLIDAY CONCERT

    This is the 44th year of the SCGS, and while we don't know just how many December holiday concerts have taken place, they have filled the memories of current members back into the 1980s and beyond.  The concert has multiple ambitions: a fund-raiser, a food collection for Northwest Harvest's Christmas drive, a jolly party, and serious music.

    The vitality of Seattle's classic guitar community was much in evidence, from the opening performance by Mark Wilson's Guitar Orchestra to the ending with Silent Night for 14 guitars and voice (audience..) accompaniment.   While the evening saw some festive holiday music, there were also very intense works for solo, duet, trio, and quartet. 

    The Guitar Orchestra introduced seasonal music, Ama Gochoa, a Basque carol, arranged by Francis Goudard, and We Three Kings, Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies, and Beautiful Festival, a Hannakah Chafe, all arranged by Wilson. Hearing the Orchestra develop over the past seasons has been a  treat. A great deal of work goes into rehearsals of the (often 4-part) pieces, first in smaller groups then in ensemble.   Plucked instruments are notoriously difficult to play in unison but it worked! The arrangements are often freshly penned by Wilson, and they are well matched to the group (Linda Carol, Tim Giacometti, Richard Hampsten, Colt Valenti, Robert Vierschilling,  Virginia Ryan).

    Robert de Visee's Suite in D minor  (roughly 1686), played by Elizabeth Brown, was a great contrast to follow the orchestra. de Visee was a chamber musician in the court of Louis XIV, and composed for both lute and baroque guitar. This quiet, well ornamented (for Christmas?) piece was well suited to Elizabeth's  baroque guitar. It is lightly textured, as the instrument does not have a deep bass.

    The Rosette Quartet (Brad Lancaster, Kim Lancaster, Kin Ritchie, Virginia Ryan) followed with a spirited and diverse set, Come Back to Sorento, Basse Danse (Claude Gervaise), La Volunte',  and Passamezzo Antico, Salterello  ( Nicolas Ammerbach), The opening Neopolitan folk song is very familiar, and after bringing back a fleeting memory of marching mandolin bands, it reminded us of one of the many cultures to which the guitar is native.   

    Bela Bartok's piano rendition of Roumanian Christmas Carols, arranged for guitar trio by Mark Wilson, were interesting, dark, not all that Christmas-y until the light and playful ending, but then Bartok was not your ordinary elf (Robert Vierschilling, Jason Williams, Mark Wilson).

     We met for the first time a newly arrived guitarist, Colt Valenti.  Colt has recently come from Florence Italy, where he had a Fulbright Scholarship, after finishing his music degrees at University of Georgia.  He played a composition of his own, Pacific Landscapes.  It was a rich and intricate work, with some 'eastern' sounds, widely ranging voices, tremolo, golpe and complex rhythms.  A great holiday present to us from a talented newcomer.  Colt is playing most Wednesdays at noon at the Henry Art Gallery of the University of Washington (on 15th Avenue near Campus Parkway).

    Michael Nicolella played Sevilla by Albeniz. It always makes one wonder why Albeniz wrote these pieces for piano, when they are so perfect on the guitar.  It is a challenging piece and Michael brought tremendous expression and technique to it. His Robert Ruck guitar formed a strong contrast to other 'neighboring' instruments,  with a deep and soft voice. He then joined Michael Partington in Theme and Variations from the sextet in B flat Op. 18, by Johannes Brahms.  This was written for strings, and translated by Brahms to the piano for Clara Schumann, and finally by John Williams for guitar duet.  It is complex music, yet Brahms could produce simple and elegant melody in the midst of chaos.  One finds this in his G major violin and piano Sonata, his Quintet for Clarinet and Strings, his Intermezzi for piano (some of which are playable on guitar...almost).

    The march of the Michaels concluded with a wonderful piece by Leo Brouwer.  Cuban Landscape with Rain (1984) was played by the Seattle Guitar Quartet:  Michael Lefevre, Michael Nicolella and Michael Partington and Kevin Callahan. Sometimes it is very limiting to see serious music named in this way. The Raindrop Prelude of Chopin for piano, the Moonlight Sonata of Beethoven, were apparently named by publishers anxious to stimulate languid emotions and greater sales of sheet music. One has to laugh halfway through the Chopin Prelude when the 'rain' turns to rain-on- steroids. But good 'program music' is another thing, whether it is  Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition or Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture.   The Brouwer piece seemed totally appropriate.  Delicate, 'liquid' tones of slight single notes first widely spaced, then joined by others, then accelerating into a full-blown rain-shower...was a memorable sequence. As so often happens in this guitar community, it was a first hearing for many of us.   The hail arrived near the end (is there a name for pulling a string away from the fingerboard, as in cocking a bow, and releasing it to crash into the frets below)?  As the piece ended, the theater lights slowly brightened, and many of us responded to this drop of sunshine.

    The evening concluded with Silent Night: 14 guitars leading the audience in song, and then cake and goodies and much conversation.  Could we ask for anything more under the Christmas tree? Just one thing:  perhaps next year there will be a violin or flute or harpsichord or soprano or tenor to join the voices of the guitar.

    Through all of this Virginia Ryan, the Board of the SCGS and its energetic corps of volunteers provided commentary and leadership...and goodies. We are indebted to you.

            -Peter Rhines