This is a very fine debut, by the way. He is a superb technician and an excellent musician. Here is the program:
Scottish Lute Manuscripts
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
Suite in E minor BWV996
Steve Reich (b.1936)
Electric Counterpoint for electric guitar and tape
Encore: Sir Peter Maxwell Davies (1934-2016), Farewell to Stromness
We might do a comparison here, just for historical perspective. As a matter of fact, I did my international debut in Wigmore Hall in September 1980, forty years ago! And I still have the program. My challenge was that one of the main venues for reviews was the magazine Music and Musicians whose proprietor had just committed suicide, so I was not going to get a review there. Luckily the dean of guitar journalism in London, John Duarte, was in attendance and gave me an excellent review. We later became friends. Here is my program:
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In case you can't read it, it was:
Froberger: Plainte pour passer la mélancholie
Schoenberg: Six Little Pieces, Op. 19
Anthony Genge: Landscape II (1978)
Bach: Lute Suite No. 4
Giuliani: Rossiniana No. 1 Op. 119
Takemitsu: Folios (1974)
Villa-Lobos: Prelude No. 2, Etude No. 7
Good grief! No concessions there to anything is there? A program only a serious guitar-lover and devotee of serious 20th century music could love. But that was what, in my mind, was the point. To show that a new, serious artist was on the scene. Sean Shibe's program has some similar motives. He wants to show his roots with the Scottish lute music, as I did with the Canadian composer. He also wants to show his versatility by playing the Steve Reich piece, both virtuoso and fashionable. I hope he got great reviews and has a great career because he deserves them.
I'm afraid that nothing much came out of my debut. I wasn't able to follow up in the UK as I never set foot there again for some thirty years. And back in Canada, no-one showed the slightest interest in the debut, the review or the program. This is precisely what Canadian audiences did NOT want to hear! Through inexperience I was not able to exploit the event to gain favor with the Canadian arts establishment. In retrospect I can see that a guitarist playing this sort of program had better pursue a career in Europe because he won't appeal to anyone anywhere else!
Mind you, in time I did adjust somewhat to Canadian taste and managed a quite good career domestically with nationwide broadcasts on the CBC of concertos by Villa-Lobos and Rodrigo.
Here is my later recording of the last piece on the program, the Etude No. 7 by Villa-Lobos.
Not his debut -- he's played there many times. Just before lockdown in fact I was at his much-discussed performance of George Lentz' hour long piece for deafeningly loud, heavily distorted solo electric guitar. it was as excruciating as it sounds, but a rather fun bit of theatre I must confess. Nearly 1/3 of the hall walked out during the first half of the piece. And most of those left behind had their fingers in their ears. One poor lady walked out, then a minute later clumsily reemerged from the door by the stage and went back into the audience desperately trying to find her handbag. Needlessly to say I found it a thoroughly entertaining evening.
ReplyDeleteI am constantly amazed at how much appeal Shibe has among non guitarists. One review of his recent album in the (London) Times wrote this interesting comment:
'In my early days reviewing classical albums Edward Greenfield, an old hand at the game, told me how he operated: “I ask the PRs to send me everything except guitar recitals.” No doubt he was fearful of 70 minutes of the old plinky-plonky music, with too much atmospheric, colourful material lacking fibre and guts. However, had he lived long enough to encounter Sean Shibe, especially via this album, surely he would have changed his mind.'
We have some fine young guitarists here, but most are only familiar in guitar circles. I think a lot of us are quietly hoping Shibe might be a Bream-like figure for the guitar. He seems above all interested in new and different repertoire (though so far I (and it would seem many others, though not the critics apparently) find his foray in solo electric guitar music underwhelming).
According the Wigmore Hall website Shibe's first appearance was in 2012 where he played one of the Boccherini Guitar Quintets. But his first solo recital was 2014. Where he played two Dowland fantasies, Bach 998 prelude, Henze Drei Tentos, Britten Nocturnal, and Mompou Cancion y danza No. 6.
I'm interested that the highest price ticket on the poster was £2.80 -- about £12 in today's only I reckon, which is well below the top price for a Wiggy recital nowadays! Were concerts cheaper back then?
It must have been such joy to play in Wigmore Hall. I have spent so many happy consoling evenings there, I really miss it.
Thanks, Steven! I just heard the name Sean Shibe for the first time a few days ago, so I assumed this was a debut concert. His actual debut program that you list looks more typical. Yes, he is a terrific guitarist and shows signs of being able to step outside the guitar ghetto. Playing pieces like the Steve Reich is one way of doing that because he builds a base among the progressive modernist crowd. Oh god yes, concerts used to be very cheap. Which means, of course, that the artist made less.
ReplyDeleteI have to agree with commentator Steven that Shibe's electric guitar playing is not very compelling compared to his acoustic classical work. His choice of a Fender Strat to produce that kind of relatively clean and layered sound is a bit puzzling to me. As a contrast check youtube for Mats Bergstrom playing the same work. I am not a guitar expert but his guitar looks similar to a Gibson 2015 L-4 CES hollow body electric. Much more resonant and enticing sound compared to the flat dull sound from Shibe's Fender live or taped.
ReplyDeleteHowever Bryan yes his program is more commercially oriented than your admirably rigorous one. Henceforth I recommend all performers of high art to be independently wealthy though.
I haven't listened to Pat Metheny's debut recording of the Steve Reich for quite a while, but I vaguely recall him having a pretty clean sound. Maybe I will do a comparison review. I even own the score to this piece so I should be able to make some intelligent comments.
ReplyDeleteIndependently wealthy is always a good life choice, isn't it? I was explaining my career business plan as a composer to a friend the other day. Like Franz Schubert I plan to write as many good pieces as I can, even if I get few performances. Then, forty or fifty years after I die, I'm hoping to be discovered.
You have no compassion for your estate I fear. The copyright only last 75 after entry into virtual reality and you will use up 2/3 of the time waiting to be discovered. I admire Gustav Holst's economy. He wrote only one work* but it was a doozy and he is more recorded and admired than 90% of other composers.
ReplyDeleteOK a bit of poetic license
Nope, no worries about my posthumous royalties. Or my prehumous ones either. Holst wrote a lot of music, it is just that only one piece has made it into the canon. Better a one-hit wonder than a no-hit wonder.
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