Eleftheria
Kotzia recital
I thoroughly enjoyed Sunday’s
recital in the South Hill Park Centre. My thanks to
Jeremy Allison for the following review.
There was a good-sized audience of
about 50 for the Eleftheria Kotzia concert on Sunday 26th
at 2-30, which included 10 children, so the policy of
cheap tickets for under 16s is justified and with a
concert titled 'Song Dance & Tango' there should be
something of interest for everyone.
Eleftheria started with 3 Preludes
from the set of 5 by Maximo Pujol - an Argentinian
guitarist/composer who has come to the fore in the last
10 years with compositions influenced by the traditional
music of his homeland, using enough rhythmic &
harmonic bite to sound fresh. The 1st prelude lacked
structural clarity but by the 3rd Miss Kotzia had warmed
up and was playing with plenty of verve and precision.
This led to 4 pieces by Villa-Lobos
including a recently discovered Valse by the then 17 year
old, a very good piece
exhibiting all the hallmarks of his
later music. I found that I would have liked more
on the beat playing in the Choro no1 and a clearer
rhythmic sense in the Study no 12 ( 9/8 ), but then
Villa-Lobos can be played many ways and still
be enjoyable. Where would the guitar repertoire be
without his contribution, all his pieces are good,
original and well worth playing whereas composers like
Maximo Pujol have their moments, at best only
occasionally.
The 1st half finished with 3 Spring
Songs by Boudounis, written for Eleftheria. I had
reservations about these pieces, the first one starting
with a simple melody accompanied by arpeggios which was
most attractive to listen to but then came rapid runs
& semi strident chords with no apparent
development from the initial music . The 2nd
was more coherent and satisfying while the third piece
was like the first, packing too much material into it's
structure. On reflection structurally the 3 pieces
were akin to a 'Sonata'. I failed to detect any
significant Greek influence in the music (or what I take
to be Greek musical influences) and was overall somewhat
disappointed.
In the 2nd part of the concert we
heard 'Chant' by John Tavener , one of England's leading
composers whose music is invariably influenced
spiritually by the Greek Orthodox Church. 'Chant'
is a simple reflective song accompanied by guitaristic
figurations which intensify somewhat but never to the
point of over-complication and maintain a calm and static
mood - Eleftheria puts this piece over very convincingly.
After this came 'Hommage to Pink Floyd' by Casterede
which started off O K but it seemed to me to become just
a mess of notes - perhaps the title should be 'Hommage to
Fink Ployd'.
Fortunately, this led onto 'Asturias'
- everybody's favourite Albeniz piece which was played
very nicely and at a smart pace.
Lastly, Eleftheria returned to music
by her compatriot Dimitri Fampas (her teacher) playing 3
pieces from his 'Greek Suite no 4 '. I thought this
was the best music of the afternoon - creative, tuneful,
full of twists and turns and in the 'Syrtaki' allowing
Eleftheria to show what a nimble and precise player she
can be. The 3 movements where played with excellent
concentration & clarity.
To sum up, a satisfying concert for
the audience. Under the heading 'Dance' I found
myself longing for an elegant ‘Minuet' to counteract
some the harshness of the music played. Another
observation - why can't people who turn up late wait
until there is a suitable time to enter? Finally,
it was very nice to see Jim & June back in the fold,
with Jim chirpy as ever but not, as yet, quite in control
of his wheels.
May
meeting
I
was unable to attend the May meeting on Sunday 12th
as I was in Scotland getting periodically rather wet.
I thought I had made alternative arrangements to capture
the evening, unfortunately illness prevented my volunteer
from attending and as a result there is no write up of
the meeting in this newsletter.
Web
site of the month
Vision4Media is a site founded by
Jovan Pesec with the stated intention of free publishing
of music in the form of scores, midis and MP3s with the
focus on classical guitar. The URL is http://www.v4m.net/index.html.
The site contains original music
which can be found by clicking on the “music”
link in the left hand frame. The scores are found
under the various “editions” which then open
up. As far as I can gather, the intention of the
original works is to be “modern” without being
“avante garde”. I had a go myself
at the Romance from “man.dra.gora” under the
“editions guillen” link and found this to be
both not too difficult and also suitably melodic for my
own taste. Some of the other material here looks to
be relatively advanced however.
This could not be said for the book of pieces under the title of “Bach & Friends” to be found under the “editions dojcinovic” link. This consists of transcriptions of 12 pieces from the Anna Magdalena Notebook by J S Bach, plus some other short pieces by various composers. The Bach pieces include some well known items from the Notebook, and although these are more difficult to play on the guitar than the piano (I’ve tried both!) the result seems satisfactory. All pieces require either the 6th , or 5th and 6th , strings to be tuned down.
I’d suggest the site is well worth a look, although as always you will need to make up your own mind about what’s there.
BGS
News
It was
good to see James at the recital on Sunday. He was
in good spirits (as will be evident from what follows)
despite the loss of his right leg and although he hasn’t
been able to pick up his guitar yet, he’s thinking
about it.
SMALL
ADS
A
suggestion by James that I’m happy to go along with
is for members to advertise items for sale in this
newsletter. This would be free of charge, but
advertisers must be a paid up member of the society.
To set
the ball rolling James offers the following items:
Ø
Choice of eleven stylish walking shoes (for the right
foot only);
Ø
An outer Mongolian nose flute (either nostril);
Ø
One batsman’s pad (for the right leg);
Ø
Choice of 12 pairs of trousers , some having the left leg
a little worn;
Ø
Right hand half of a “Subaseal” rubber hot
water bottle;
Ø
Choice of two fur lined walking sticks (ambidextrous).
Anyone
wishing to negotiate prices for these items please
contact “Lefty”, not me!
NEXT
MEETING
Our next
meeting is on Sunday 9th June when Paul Miron
will be giving a short recital in preparation for his
Diploma, followed by the scheduled Ensemble session.
Please
note that unless notified otherwise, in addition to the
specially arranged events we always meet at 07.30 p.m. on
the second Sunday of each month at the South Hill Park
Centre, Bracknell.
NEWSLETTER
FORMAT
In
an attempt to cut down the society’s printing costs
and wear and tear on my printer, not to mention my own
time in producing this newsletter, as will be evident I’ve
revised the format whilst retaining the same sort of
“look and feel”. I hope it meets with
approval – comments welcome!
Other
News
Doesn’t
seem to be much happening in the wider guitar world this
month – besides, the space is needed for other
things!
And
Finally …..
A guy named David received a parrot
for his birthday. The parrot was fully grown, with a bad
attitude and worse vocabulary. Every other word was an
expletive. Those that weren't expletives were, to say the
least, rude.
David tried hard to change the bird's
attitude and was constantly saying polite words, playing
soft music, anything he could think of to try and set a
good example.
Nothing worked. He yelled at the bird
and the bird yelled back. He shook the bird and the bird
just got more angry and more rude. Finally, in a moment
of desperation, David put the parrot in the freezer.
For a few moments he heard the bird
squawk and kick and scream. Then suddenly there was
quiet. Not a sound for half a minute. David was
frightened that he might have hurt the bird and quickly
opened the freezer door. The parrot calmly stepped out
onto David's extended arm and said, "I believe I may
have offended you with my rude language and actions. I
will endeavor at once to correct my behavior. I really am
truly sorry and beg your forgiveness."
David was astonished at the bird's
change in attitude and was about to ask what had made
such a dramatic change when the parrot continued,
"May I ask what the chicken did?"
(Thanks again to Gerri Suggett).