San Francisco Classical Voice

The classical guitar is a subtle instrument best known for its intimate solo voice. In recent years a growing number of duos, trios, and quartets have been exploring the coloristic, dynamic, and contrapuntal possibilities of the instrument in an ensemble setting. Friday night the Omni Foundation presented a shared recital in the Green Room that showcased both solo and ensemble music with the San Francisco Guitar Quartet and Scott Tennant.

The San Francisco Guitar Quartet offered a program of four meticulously prepared contemporary works. The first was Opals, by the young Australian composer Philipp Houghton. It opened with a driving rhythm reminiscent of rock music supporting an intense solo line expertly played by Mark Simmons and proceeded to develop more delicate effects of slow rolled chords, gentle percussion, and harmonics.

Introduction and Dance, by Dusan Bogdanovic, was the outstanding quartet on the program, full of intense expression and formal complexity. Sharon Wayne played a Middle Eastern melody with sinuous grace and was then joined by her colleagues in an intricate contrapuntal texture in which the different registers and colors of the guitar were explored and contrasted. Bogdanovic's mastery of ethnic music, classical procedures, improvisation, and virtuosity make Introduction and Dance a superb work.

Italian composer Carlo Domeniconi's Cinque Pezzi Brevi (Five Brief Pieces) were full of a sophisticated elegance reminiscent of early 20th century French music. The tender melodies and introspective harmonies received a fine performance — sensitive, subtle and cool.

Another high point was Brazilian composer Paulo Bellinati's Baião de Gude, a high-energy interpretation of the traditional Brazilian baião rhythm, full of complex and engaging orchestration. The San Francisco Guitar Quartet was at its best with this loose-limbed but rhythmically precise music. David Dueñas was outstanding in the jazzy middle section.

Scott Tennant was introduced to the audience as a classical guitarist equivalent to the Olympic athletes currently in the news. The guitar is still early enough in its history as a concert instrument for total mastery to be worthy of note, and Tennant plays with a command of the instrument comparable to a Williams or a Barrueco.

Cuban composer Leo Brouwer's Homenaje a Falla (Homage to Falla) is a landmark composition that brought the energy of early 20th century modernism to the guitar repertoire. Tennant used color contrasts to create the effect of multiple textures and instruments. "Danza del Altiplano" is a melody of the Peruvian Indians artfully arranged with glissandi, percussion, and harmonics. Tennant's sensitive rhythmic shaping created the appropriate tone of mysterious antiquity.

Georg Philipp Telemann's Fantasia No. 1, originally for solo violin, is a four-movement work in the standard Baroque form of slow-fast-slow-fast. Tennant created an 18th century world full of introspection, celebration, melancholy, and intricacy. I had not heard the work before and thought it a wonderful addition to the repertoire.

If guitar recitals were included in the Olympics, Tennant's performance of the Grand Overture by classical Viennese composer Mauro Guiliani would be the event to place him on the front page of newspapers. A single movement sonata allegro form in the manner of an opera overture, it places immense demands on the soloist. The slow and dramatic introduction in minor, the major-key exposition full of sparkling virtuoso turns, the development with frequent modulations, including a dark turn to the minor, the recapitulation and ornate coda that conclude the work were played exquisitely. Tennant created the joy and excitement of an opening night of an 18th century opera buffa full of engaging characters and delightful plot twists.

Federico Moreno-Torroba, well known as a composer of Spanish comic operas in the early 20th century, was also a master of intimate Spanish character pieces for guitar. His Fandango is an interpretation of flamenco music, with a poetic sensibility closer to Debussy's than to an authentic intensity. The quiet Arada and rousing Danza derive from other Spanish folk traditions. Tennant's performances were imbued with a rhythmic life and guitaristic color.

The music of Yugoslavian expatriate guitarist Miroslav Tadic explores the music of his native land and his interests in jazz and contemporary classical music. Tennant's lifelong familiarity with the music of the Balkans (his mother was from Yugoslavia) apparently served him well in a set of three pieces that were alternately heartfelt, gypsy influenced, and wildly exciting.

The evening concluded with Scott Tennant and the San Francisco Guitar Quartet performing an Afro-Peruvian song as a quintet in an exhilarating arrangement by David Dueñas in the folkloric style of the popular group Inti-Illimani.

(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