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For the guitar aficionado what could be more exhilarating than a solo guitar recital? Courtesy of TCCA (soon to be InConcert Sierra,) the answer was a recital by two guitarists, a double spine-tingle of a Third-Sunday concert by the Brasil Guitar Duo, one of the finest guitar duos around.
Inspired by the Duo of Douglas Lora and Joćo Luiz, I may take up the guitar. After all, the guitar, in acoustic or electric form, is the most played, never mind listened to, instrument in the world. What other instrument spans the world of music from Afro-pop to Zydeco, and of geography from Azerbaijan to Zanzibar? It would be easier to carry than my piano. I could explore centuries of rich classical repertoire, jam in folk groups, Country and Western bands, cool jazz combos, and ear-splitting rock-bands. I could accompany flamenco dancers and sultry sopranos, and, if I had been a little older, I could have sat in with Reinhardt and Grappelli at the Hot Club de France.
I don't really have the language to describe the extraordinary virtuosic skills and diverse musicality of the Duo. The program ranged from a French and Italian classical first half (and a delightful Valsa and Posludio by Lora himself) to an all-20th-century Brazilian second half, many of the pieces arranged by Luiz.
Precision, subtlety and rhythm were the order of the day. Playing identical guitars (one unusually with a seventh string), Lora and Luis blended so perfectly that it was impossible to tell where the sound was coming from. Musical figures moved seamlessly from one to the other. Their finger work in passages that would tax a keyboard player was flawless, and the effect of different plucking and strumming techniques showed the unexpected range of the guitar's expressiveness. Three Preludes and Fugues by the Italian Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco were especially effective, while two movements from Debussy's Children's Corner showed familiar music in a startlingly different light.
The second half revealed the intoxicating subtlety of Brazilian rhythms and musical forms far beyond the blandness of the Bossa Nova. The choro, the maxixe and the biaio, the most traditional of Brazilian musical forms featured in Jacob de Bandolim's exquisite Doce de Coco, are now part of my musical vocabulary – if only I could pronounce them.
The capacity audience, many of them old enough to be the performers' parents if not grandparents, foot-tapped and head-bopped, infected by the intricate rhythms and complex shifting harmonies of largely unfamiliar musical territory. It was just another TCCA musical horizon-expanding experience.
Who knew that a couple of guitarists on a Sunday afternoon could be so exciting?
Perhaps my aspiration to be a guitarist is a little far-fetched. Maybe I'll take up the ukulele instead.
Inspired by the Duo of Douglas Lora and Joćo Luiz, I may take up the guitar. After all, the guitar, in acoustic or electric form, is the most played, never mind listened to, instrument in the world. What other instrument spans the world of music from Afro-pop to Zydeco, and of geography from Azerbaijan to Zanzibar? It would be easier to carry than my piano. I could explore centuries of rich classical repertoire, jam in folk groups, Country and Western bands, cool jazz combos, and ear-splitting rock-bands. I could accompany flamenco dancers and sultry sopranos, and, if I had been a little older, I could have sat in with Reinhardt and Grappelli at the Hot Club de France.
I don't really have the language to describe the extraordinary virtuosic skills and diverse musicality of the Duo. The program ranged from a French and Italian classical first half (and a delightful Valsa and Posludio by Lora himself) to an all-20th-century Brazilian second half, many of the pieces arranged by Luiz.
Precision, subtlety and rhythm were the order of the day. Playing identical guitars (one unusually with a seventh string), Lora and Luis blended so perfectly that it was impossible to tell where the sound was coming from. Musical figures moved seamlessly from one to the other. Their finger work in passages that would tax a keyboard player was flawless, and the effect of different plucking and strumming techniques showed the unexpected range of the guitar's expressiveness. Three Preludes and Fugues by the Italian Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco were especially effective, while two movements from Debussy's Children's Corner showed familiar music in a startlingly different light.
The second half revealed the intoxicating subtlety of Brazilian rhythms and musical forms far beyond the blandness of the Bossa Nova. The choro, the maxixe and the biaio, the most traditional of Brazilian musical forms featured in Jacob de Bandolim's exquisite Doce de Coco, are now part of my musical vocabulary – if only I could pronounce them.
The capacity audience, many of them old enough to be the performers' parents if not grandparents, foot-tapped and head-bopped, infected by the intricate rhythms and complex shifting harmonies of largely unfamiliar musical territory. It was just another TCCA musical horizon-expanding experience.
Who knew that a couple of guitarists on a Sunday afternoon could be so exciting?
Perhaps my aspiration to be a guitarist is a little far-fetched. Maybe I'll take up the ukulele instead.
Charles Atthill lives in Alta Sierra. He is in the market for a gently-used ukulele and a copy of “Ukulele for Dummies." Maybe one day TCCA will engage him for one of its concerts.
