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CHAMBER MUSIC REVIEW
December 4, 2003
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By Scott Cmiel
In recent years there has been a growing interest in the guitar as an ensemble instrument with multicultural roots. At Villa Montalvo last Thursday, the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet performed the music of J. S. Bach, Chet Atkins, Aaron Copland, Pat Metheny, Franz Liszt, Chick Corea and others in an eclectic and memorable program.
In Quiccan, a work by quartet member Andrew York, the medium of four guitars was used to create a more democratic ensemble than the traditional string quartet with its well-defined roles for each instrument. Strumming and percussion created a huge sound and lightly touched individual notes were used to create a penetrating quiet. Cascading ostinatos combined with distinctive melodic, chordal and percussive passages to establish both the group's ensemble skills and wide expressive pallette. However demanding this intricate and lively interplay must be in rehearsal, it is delightful to hear in performance.
An arrangement of Prelude #1 from Bach's Well Tempered Clavier had each guitarist play one note in the familiar rolling arpeggios creating a distinctive and shimmering sound while the following Fugue had its contrapuntal clarity enhanced by the extended range of John Dearman's seven-string guitar. Sergio Assad's Varakena, named for an Indian tribe indigenous to the Brazilian rainforest, combined folkloric elements, the influence of jazz and techniques of contemporary composition into a complex and satisfying whole.
Aaron Copland's Paisaje Mexicano and Danza de Jalisco were arrangements of his orchestral Three Latin American Sketches. The first movement, described by LAGQ member William Kanengiser as “like Appalachian Spring, but with cactus,” was warm and lyrical. The second movement, named for a state in northern Mexico, was a lively dance described as “a south of the border Hoe-down.” Last-minute additions to the program were the premiere performances of a group of pieces dedicated to guitarists that LAGQ members admire. Black Icarus, a Kanengiser arrangement of Ralph Towner's Icarus in the style of Baden Powell's Black Orpheus, was too much of a stylistic hodgepodge to work. A setting of Pat Metheny's Letter From Home, with its lush orchestral feeling, was very successful. So was Brian Johanson's Let's Be Frank, an homage to Frank Zappa which successfully reflected the rock music icon's multfaceted personality. Zappa's intellect and humor as well as his love of serious atonal music, bebop jazz and just plain silliness were all alluded to in this effective showpiece. Chet Atkins' Blue Ocean Echo and Country Gentleman received the full LAGQ treatment with guitar slides imitating pedal guitars, and parallel melodies passed elegantly from player to player. Chick Corea's Spain was the most complex arrangement of the evening. John Dearman imitated the Return To Forever bass lines on his seven string guitar, Bill Kanengiser expressively covered many of the melodic passages, Andrew York provided what sounded like an improvised Latin jazz solo using a pick, and the incomparable Scott Tennant played first a combination of rasgueado and percussion of stunning complexity and then added a countermelody while simultaneously playing a tremolo using only his right hand thumb. All this was done in service of the exuberant music without a hint of vulgar showmanship. The program concluded with Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody #2 in another over-the-top arrangement which this time had the ensemble alternating slow sensuous music and spirited dance in imitation of a Gypsy band.
(Scott Cmiel is a guitarist on the faculties of the San Francisco Conservatory and the University of California, Berkeley.)
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Los Angeles Guitar Quartet