San Francisco Classical Voice

Classical guitarists have faired well hereabouts under a two-tiered system. The internationally acclaimed artists are regularly presented by San Francisco Performances, while the young talent is sponsored by guitar societies and Omni Foundation, which is dedicated to this cause. Last weekend saw the system at work, with the master Pepe Romero performing Spanish classics at Herbst Theater on Saturday and the young Turkish guitarist Cem Duruoz performing new transcriptions of the French Baroque composer Marin Marais at the First United Lutheran Church on Friday.

Romero took on a survey of the history of the Spanish classical guitar, music of Renaissance, Baroque, Classical, Romantic, and 20th century composers in turn. He began with Luis de Milán, a most important composer for the vihuela, the 16th century predecessor of the modern classical guitar. Milán's Fantasia XVI is notable for its alternation of homophony, polyphony, and rapid scale passages as well as for its almost improvisatory form. Romero played this mercurial work with an ease and grace that made it an excellent invitation to the evening of music.

Fernando Sor's Variations on a Theme of Mozart is a charming and brilliant concert showpiece in the Viennese classical style, based on the music from The Magic Flute that Papageno plays to charm Monostatos away from his evil ways and to induce joyful camaraderie. It should be light, happy, and delicate, but Romero's constant pauses and variable tempo made the work plod. Francisco Tárrega's Capricho árabe is a dark, moody late Romantic work that evokes memories of the Arab history in Spain. Romero's use of rubato and glissandi and his exploration of the guitar's coloristic possibilities made this a memorable performance.

Tárrega's Grand jota is a set of variations on the Aragonian dance that is notable for its empty virtuosity. The second half of the recital was dedicated mostly to 20th century Spanish nationalist composers. The music of Turina, Torroba, Rodrigo, and Albéniz, made well known to guitar audiences by Andrés Segovia, was well served by Romero, a master of the phrasing and coloristic effects that make this music so effective on the guitar.

In contrast, Cem Duruoz' recital featured music written originally for solo viol by French Baroque composer Marin Marais, music suffused with elegiac lyricism, delicacy, and sophistication. Although Marais himself invited performance of this music on the guitar, this Suite in A Minor is the first transcription for solo guitar I have heard. Each movement — Prelude, Fantaisie, Allemande, Courante, Sarabande, Gigue, Menuet, Gavotte, Tombeau — projected a unique mood, in turn brisk, introspective, capricious, severe, refined, and pastoral.

The melancholy Prelude was in the stile brise, or broken chord style that was ultimately so important to Bach. It provided Duruoz many opportunities for ornamentation and dynamic shading. The Tombeau pour M. de Lully was written as an elegy for Marais' teacher. Duruoz performed with a great sensitivity to the architecture of this large-scale work, and his attention to detail made every moment poignant.

Marais' Le Tableau de l'Opération de la Taille and Les Relevailles are character pieces for viol and narrator meant to invoke both the pain of an 18th century operation undergone without the benefit of anesthetic and the subsequent recovery. The music was wonderfully descriptive throughout. But a 20th century composer would have had more appropriate musical means for the gruesome subject matter. The performance by Duruoz and narrator Sylvie Braitman was exquisite. Braitman also joined Duruoz in an alluring performance of Manuel de Falla's Seven Spanish Folk Songs.

Another high point of the recital was the San Francisco premiere of David Hahn's It Fama per Urbes (Rumor Traverses the Cities), composed for Duruoz. It is a single-movement sonata for solo classical guitar divided into three internal sections: moto perpetuo, lento, and a scherzo-like finale. The piece is based on two different modes, motivic transformation and fragmentation, giving the impression of constant and fundamental disagreement. The title of the piece is an allusion to the personification of "Rumor" in the fourth book of Virgil's Aeneid — Rumor, the powerful figure who flies about indiscriminately sowing lies, turning fortunes, and destroying lives. Duruoz delivered a passionate performance.

(Scott Cmiel is a guitarist on the faculties of the San Francisco Conservatory and the University of California, Berkeley, SCmiel@aol.com)

©2000 Scott Cmiel, all rights reserved