Paris Guitar Duo’s Splendid Local Debut

Guitarists Judicael Perroy and Jérémy Jouve, each internationally known as an outstanding soloist, have recently combined their talents to form the Paris Guitar Duo. They made their San Francisco debut as an ensemble at the Green Room in a recital on Saturday sponsored by the Omni Foundation for the Performing Arts. The program was brilliantly performed, and featured a 19th-century French classic that deserves to be better known, as well as music from Brazil and a healthy dose of Classical and early-Romantic transcriptions and originals.

The 19th-century French composer César Franck was known for his formal and harmonic innovations as well as for the beauty of his compositions. His Prélude, Fugue, et Variation, Op. 18, was composed, originally for organ, in 1860-1862 and features a four-voice fugue in strict contrapuntal style surrounded by the more flowing and romantic Prelude and Variation. The Paris Guitar Duo perfectly captured the seductive cantilena of the outer movements and clearly articulated the austere Fugue.

Joseph Haydn’s Quartetto, Op. 2, No. 2, is a five-movement work, originally for string quartet. It features a sprightly and tuneful Allegro, two Menuet and Trio movements with striking changes of character, a tender Adagio with elaborate figuration, and a cheerful, fleet-as-the-wind Presto. The Paris Guitar Duo performed the arrangement by Haydn’s contemporary François de Fossa with panache and stylistic elegance.

The duo brought the same technical and stylistic mastery to Gioachino Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia Overture, which, for fans of Bugs Bunny cartoons, the Beatles film Help, and the Seinfeld television show, is inextricably linked with high-spirited humor. The Paris Guitar Duo played the brash opening chords, the hesitant but skittish recurring figure, the alternately sunny and grotesque tunes, and the breakneck-paced accelerando with assurance and grace.

Jarring Notes

While the first half of the program was dedicated to music arranged for two guitars, the second half featured music written for the medium. The Grand Duo Concertant, by 19th-century guitar virtuoso Napoléon Coste, is an ambitious work in four movements. While well-played, it was tuneful in the manner of the Haydn and Rossini and shared the same Classic and early-Romantic harmonic world. It was perhaps too much of a good thing. By this point it became obvious that the performers’ stage presence also left something to be desired. While the playing was first rate, regular whispered conversations between the performers followed by laughter had many feeling left out; the frequent severe glares at audience members who had coughed ended up looking comical; and the uncertainty about when pieces were to begin was distracting.

Despite these lapses, the evening concluded with three beautifully performed movements from Radamés Gnattali’s Suite Retratos, each based on the music of a popular Brazilian composer: “Pixinguinha” was ebullient, “Ernesto Nazareth” contemplative, and “Anacleto de Medeiros” earnest, though all were appealingly whimsical.