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RECITAL REVIEW
Subtlety and Precision December 1, 2001
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By Peter Danner
At one point during Saturday's well-attended concert of the Los Angeles
Guitar Quartet at the Herbst Theater, John Dearman, a member of the ensemble,
observed, "We do a lot of arranging as we don't have anything like a
Beethoven cycle to draw on." Of course, guitarists have been complaining for
years that they have no Mozarts or Beethovens to draw upon. Yet, good
guitarists and guitar ensembles manage to survive and flourish through
innovative programming.
The Los Angeles Guitar Quartet has been in existence for well over a decade
and earned a reputation for resourceful programming. Besides Dearman, the
ensemble consists of William Kanengiser, Scott Tennant, and Andrew York. All
four are accomplished musicians (at least two of them affiliated with USC)
with excellent stage presence, who have achieved remarkable precision in an
exacting medium. Their musicianship is, therefore, solid. One is left mainly
to question the appropriateness of some of their repertoire to the guitar.
Most of the group's arranging is done by Kanengiser, three examples of his
work being on display Saturday night. The most successful of these was the
six-movement Carmen Suite from Bizet's famous opera. The LAGQ has played this
suite for a number of years and it met with enthusiastic applause again
Saturday night. The guitar colors only enhanced its Spanish flavor and the
very familiarity of the music even added to its effectiveness. The Entr'acte
was lovely and the crisp pacing of the Toreador March, with York intoning
its well-known theme, was memorable.
Equally effective was Kanengiser's arrangement of two of Aaron Copland's Three Latin American Sketches. The strength of "Paisajo Mexicano" lay in its very simplicity and balanced nicely with the jaunty "Danza de Jalisco" that followed. Less successful was the set of pieces drawn from Stravinsky's Pulcinella. I rarely got the sense that Stravinsky had much to do with this music. Granted, this is atypical Stravinsky, based on themes by Pergolesi — and, although the program notes didn't mention it, parts of a Gluck ballet called Don Juan. But Stravinsky's orchestration is telling, and little of this dimension came through in Kanengiser's arrangement. Ironically, the movement that worked best was the little "Vivo," which Kanengiser reminded us Stravinsky originally wrote for the unlikely combination of double-bass and trombone. The rest of the program consisted of music actually written for guitar quartet. The three African-inspired pieces (two by York, one by Kanengiser) that opened the program proved ideal curtain-raisers, with their pulsing rhythms and effervescent textures. I particularly enjoyed Kanengiser's little Mbira, in which the sound of the thumb piano was conveyed by attaching small staples to the strings. Another folk-inspired work, later in the program, was Hasta Alicia Baila by Eduardo Martin, based on a Cuban rumba rhythm. This used percussive effects (largely supplied by Tennant) and met with sustained applause at its conclusion.
One of the encores was an informal rendition of "Here Comes the Sun" (complete with audience participation) in honor of the Beatles' lead guitarist George Harrison, who died this past week. This was entirely appropriate. The number of classical guitarists who were first introduced to the instrument through rock and roll must be vast. Unfortunately, one negative aspect of the concert must be reported. The guitar is basically a quiet instrument and desecrating amplification has become common practice. The sound system this particular night, however, was intrusive. In mid-register certain pitches were overmodulated and unnatural sounding. It is a shame for artistry to be overridden by technology. (Peter Danner is editor of Soundboard, a quarterly magazine for classical guitarists, and past president of the Lute Society of America.) ©2001 Peter Danner, all rights reserved |
Los Angeles Guitar Quartet