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An excellently performed disc of some fine modern guitar
repertoire, in this case concertos for guitar duet. The Amadeus Guitar
Duo (Canadian Dale Kavanagh and German Thomas Kirchhoff, a couple off-stage
as well as on) play this music with real belief. Particularly in the case
of the Domeniconi, it is not difficult to understand why. The Italian
born composer was responsible for what this writer considers to be one
of the absolute peaks of 20th century guitar repertoire (the
fantastic Koyunbaba) and his effort here is not far behind - his
Concerto Mediterraneo. This was conceived almost as a requiem for
the Mediterranean ("having watched the waters die") and is up there with
the best of recent efforts in this medium, e.g. Leo Brouwer's Toronto
and Helsinki concertos and Richard Harvey's Concerto Antico.
It shares with these pieces (although they are for solo rather
than guitar duo) a highly listenable idiom which is nonetheless an adventurous
one and also a relative distance from the (admittedly successful) Spanish
ones. Domeniconi's Mediterranean laps the shores of his native Italy and,
to an even greater degree, those of Greece and especially Turkey. He lived
and taught in the latter country and it was the inspiration for his masterpiece,
the aforementioned Koyunbaba.
The half hour concerto is cast in three movements of
roughly equal length and sets two sections marked Allegro around
a central Andante cantabile. The score is by turns lyrical, meditative
and always very musical - the booklet notes rightly allude to the guitar
sound sometimes approximating (this is especially apparent in the slow
movement) to that of Byzantine and Near East stringed instruments like
the oud and bouzouki. There are precedents for this. In a different context
altogether, John Tavener's Chant makes similar connections. It
also reminded me, unsurprisingly, at times of an EMI disc (probably now
deleted) of Turkish folk music played on guitar. That said, Domeniconi
is a modern composer working with modern sounds and he has produced something
highly worthwhile and often moving. It left me wanting to hear more of
yet another relatively neglected Italian and is a piece of beauty in its
own right (especially in the opening movement), only marginally less magical
and atmospheric than Koyunbaba.
Harald Genzmer is a German composer, from an older
generation than Domeniconi, who has been described as a "moderate modern".
I would concur with this analysis. I was very interested in the fact that,
in his concerto for two guitars, wind quintet and strings, the final movement
(Allegro) cadenza used is by Gerald Garcia. Garcia is one of my
favourite guitarist/composers. His transcriptions of Celtic music are
particularly special and are, to these ears, echoed in the very opening
of Genzmer's work itself.
The first movement as a whole is restlessly inventive
but this piece's emotional centre is its central Largo, in which
"the dry lyricism of its guitar parts…are framed by warm harmonies in
the strings and winds" to create music which wouldn't be out of place
in the slower sections of Brouwer's magnificent Concerto di Toronto.
The finale, Garcia cadenza and all, ends the work on an exuberant and
highly rhythmic high note, providing a suitable conclusion to a very desirable
disc. A little short on playing time perhaps but the Domeniconi, in particular,
is essential listening for any 20th century guitar aficionados.
Recording, production and performances are exemplary.
Neil Horner
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C. DOMENICONI
Concerto Mediterraneo op. 67
Allegro
moderato
Andante
cantabile
Allegro
H. GENZMER
Concerto in G
Andante
tranquillo - Allegro
Largo
Vivace
Cadence by Gerald Garcia
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Dale Kavanagh, Thomas
Kirchhoff (Amadeus Guitar Duo), guitars 