Or as the English would spell it "programme." Speaking of the English, John Duarte the guitarist, composer and reviewer, used to call a certain kind of guitar program "rent-a-program" because it was so predictable: Some Renaissance music followed by either some Baroque (Bach) or Classical (Sor). The second half would, without fail, be either Spanish music or Spanish music preceded by a bit of 20th century music. Nowadays we tend to see Astor Piazzolla appearing in the second half.
This problem is not specific to guitarists, of course, string quartets are equally guilty. How many times have we seen this program: Haydn or Mozart followed by, perhaps, something modern with the second half devoted either to Beethoven or some big romantic piece. Pianists have so much repertoire that they easily can come up with something more interesting and they often do.
Anyway, in the interest of sparking some thinking about programming, I want to propose one. I've been working up a half-program that I might present in a private concert in the fall. This will consist of two pieces in D tuning: the Sonatina meridional of Ponce and the Chaconne by Bach. In that order, because there is really nothing that can come after the Chaconne--not in the guitar repertoire at least! So let's have that in the second half. Now, for the first half, how about beginning with several preludes by Ponce? Segovia published twelve in two books, but Ponce wrote twenty-four. Lots of options there. And for the rest of the first half, a small group of Venezuelan waltzes by Antonio Lauro. Lovely, tuneful music that doesn't get played as much as it should.
So there you have it, a program that should both appeal to a general guitar audience and be creative enough so no-one would cry "rent-a-program!" Let's cobble it together from YouTube with one of my recordings slipped in.
That's four, but I think we should have at least six preludes. Here is a recording of all 24, so listen to the first two or three.
Now for some Antonio Lauro, which will provide a nice foil to Ponce:
Just to show there is more than one way to play Lauro, I have also recorded the fourth one, Carora:
Intermission
First the Sonatina meridional by Ponce:
And finally, culminating with the Chaconne from the D minor violin partita in John Williams' transcription:
So, what do you think?
13 comments:
I like the idea of starting with Ponce preludes. Some recent guitar concerts I've been to have started with fireworks and I don't understand why. I much prefer an intimate beginning. Whether I would pay money to go to a concert with this programme would possibly depend on the player, given it consists of works I have heard many times. Though both the Sonatina and the Chaconne remain two of my favourites in the repertoire.
My ideal guitar programme would have a lot of seldom-heard music. And with guitar concerts I generally prefer variety, mostly because of repertoire limitations. Though saying that, I think the repertoire is in a better place than it's ever been. There's a lot of good rediscovered repertoire, as well as many good guitarist-composers around (Ramelli, Bogdanovic, Ourkouzounov...), and still some first-rate non-guitarist composers writing for the instrument (e.g. a new solo work by Thomas Ades will be premiering earlier next year). My ideal programme would look something like this, though it probably wouldn't get many bums on seats:
Selection of Llobet's folksongs
Julian Bautista -- Preludio y Danza
Elizabeth Lutyens -- The Dying of the Sun
Georges Migot -- Pour un hommage a Claude Debussy
Tansman -- Hommage a Lech Walesa
Granados -- Intermezzo (arr. Trepat)
Toshio Hosokawa -- Serenade
Mompou -- Suite Compostelana
And for an encore: Bach Sarabande 995
(Hm, I feel I should clarify that first paragraph, which reads grumpily. I would love, love to go see Dylla or Shibe or Smits or yourself, say, play these works, I just mean if it were yet another competition winner giving a recital in a premier London venue, the old classics wouldn't compel me to go. But if he or she were playing something unusual, then I might.)
I will have to look around and dig it out, but I think you would have found my Wigmore Hall debut concert program to your liking. Apart from the 4th Lute Suite it included a moment-form piece by a Canadian composer, Anthony Genge, and the Six Little Pieces op. 19 by Schoenberg. John Duarte gave me quite a good review. Oh, and I think I also played the Rossiniana op 119 by Giuliani.
But today I was trying to find that middle ground between what a general audience would like but that would still be enjoyable by the more demanding guitar aficionados.
Is that Rafaella Smits? Belgian guitarist? She was studying with Tomas in Alicante when I was there.
Yep, the same. I like her playing very much. What was she like then?
I may have misinterpreted the post as an invitation to talk about guitar programming generally. Yes, for such an audience it's the perfect programme. And I wish I could hear it! (I don't suppose you've thought about making some recordings?)
I think you might have posted the Wigmore programme not too long ago -- was it the one with Takemitsu's Folios as well? Yes it sounds very much like my thing, as a listener at least. (As a player I'm more conservative, knowing well my limits...)
I think I have a photo of a bunch of us at Alicante. I will look for it. We were in the master class together and I don't remember what she played. I suspect she was about the same level as me back then.
God, yes, I may have played Folios by Takemitsu as well!
Oh no, the post was definitely an invitation to discuss programming. It is just that these days I would very much like to attract an audience--well, if I were doing some serious concertizing, which I'm not.
But I would want to play a program that did not include the current clichés, i.e. Piazzolla and Dyens, for example. Can't stand either of them.
Agreed. And worse, Piazzolla seems to be becoming a cliched presence at other instrument recitals too, e.g. accordion.
Here, I haven't found a strong correlation between programming and audience size. Most local chamber music series just have regulars who come to every concert, whether it's Purcell or Ginastera. To some extent it's easy to take the audience for granted.
I'd personally replace the Ponce with pieces from Ferenc Farkas' Exercitium Tonale. :) Not that Ponce is bad but Farkas' pieces are more compelling to me and he's a post-Bartok Hungarian composer who, as Angelo Gilardino put it, has been nicer to the guitar than guitarists have been to his music.
My nod to Classical would be a solo guitar arrangement of Haydn's Op. 76, No. 1 movement 1 because, ahem, I know someone who did that for solo guitar using CGDGBE tuning. I love "All in Twilight" so much I would put that in a program.
A Bogdanovic sonata and a Gilardino sonata would be what I'd want somewhere in a program. Rebay's first E major sonata is lovely (though very conservative, a la Brahms/Schubert in the 1940s). Of his seven solo guitar sonatas it's probably my favorite but it's not as well-represented in commercial recordings and YT presentations.
Piazzolla's most memorable work is Histoire du Tango and even if it's been played absolutely to death in the last 25 years it's earned it's place. The Ourkouzounov Sonatine for flute and guitar deserves to take it's place, though. :D
I think the bottom line here is that there is lots of room for creativity in programming and lots of interesting repertoire that needs more exposure. And Steven, your remarks make me think, not for the first time, that I should have pursued my career in England instead of Canada!
The classical guitar scene in England the 60s/70s sounds like it was a golden age of opportunity and interest. Or at least that's how those around now describe it.
Well, except that you had to compete with Bream and Williams!
Duarte had that comment about "rent-a-program" so maybe it wasn't even quite the golden age it looks like to us now for some of them back then. :)
There was a lot of remarkable stuff going on during that period but I wouldn't personally trade now for then. As Matanya Ophee warned us fellow guitarists, the classical guitar never actually had a golden age but that's no reason to not keep busy.
Yes, I probably agree. The general standards of playing were definitely worse. And the repertoire not as broad and interesting. But usually when people refer to it as a golden age I think they mean that there was more general interest in the instrument and, moreover, much more money to be gained. The instrument was on TV (the BBC broadcast Bream's masterclasses for goodness sake, unimaginable now!), classical guitar lessons crazily popular...
Have a look at my post today for some perspective on then and now.
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