Robert Horna is a
young Polish guitarist who has been
picking up glowing reviews and plaudits
for his playing. This is his second
CD, and contains a particularly interesting
programme. The music is not well-known
– to non-guitarists anyway – but is
all well worth hearing. Horna’s playing
is stunning; there is a technical
assurance which is transcendental,
allied to an unusual ability to transmit
powerfully the character of the music
he interprets.
The first tracks
of the CD are given up to the wonderful
suite by Piazzolla which gives the
CD its name. The title means ‘The
Four Seasons of the Portenas’, Porteñas
being the name for inhabitants of
Buenos Aires. The liner notes tell
us that what we are hearing is an
arrangement by Robert Horna of a work
written for Piazzolla’s quintet. That
may be the case, but it sounds quite
superb on the guitar, and is an altogether
delightful item. For those who expect
nothing but tangos from Piazzolla,
this will be an eye and ear opener.
This is sophisticated yet wholly engaging
music, full of invention and melodic
charm. Track 4, with its distant echoes
of the Pachelbel Canon, is especially
memorable.
Brouwer’s El Decameron
Negro (‘Black Decameron’) may be a
little more challenging to listen
to – the style is more fragmented
– but it is full of fruitful ideas,
and develops them in an extended and
improvisatory way. I don’t hear much
‘serious’ Cuban music, so this was
a real find.
Appropriately, given
his background, Horna includes a piece
by the distinguished Polish composer
Aleksander Tansman. Like a lot of
Tansman, this Cavatina in five movements
has a Neoclassical flavour, as well
as distinctly Polish melodic inflections.
The central Scherzino is a splendid
example of Horna’s technical and musical
control, while the wistful Barcarole
and good-humoured Danza Pomposa bring
more enjoyment.
Barrios-Mangoré
was a Paraguayan guitar virtuoso,
and these two pieces of his are written
with a wonderful idiomatic feel for
the instrument. Many listeners will
know and love Tárrega’s exquisite
Recuerdos de l’Alhambra – Memories
of the Alhambra – known to guitarists
as the ‘tremolo study’ because of
its rapid repeated notes, so difficult
to sustain. In Un Sueño en
la Floresta, Barrios-Mangoré
attempts something similar, possibly
in the nature of a tribute. The layout
of the music is so similar to Recuerdos,
yet the mood is subtly different,
with delicate sensibility, yet less
of its model's intense nostalgia.
The concluding item
is by the youngest composer represented
on the disc, Carlo Domeniconi. This
a suite called Koyunbaba, though the
movements run continuously so that
the whole thing occupies one track.
There are some remarkable though very
beautiful sounds created here; not
being a guitarist, worse luck, I have
no idea how they are produced, but
they are magical and evocative nonetheless.
The recording of
this CD is exceptionally good. With
the guitar, you have to be prepared
to accept the sound of the left hand
shifting across the strings. But there’s
not much of that, though the microphones
are close enough to allow a real sense
of intimacy. Highly recommended for
sheer musical pleasure as well as
considerable interest and novelty.
Gwyn Parry-Jones
Robert Horna (guitar) 
