This is one of the
most enjoyable and rewarding recorded guitar recitals that I
have heard in quite some time. It would merit top marks (if
MusicWeb went in for anything so crude as marks out of ten)
for repertoire, for recording quality, for documentation and
for the technique and musicianship of the performer.
When I have previously
heard Llobet’s Variaciónes sobre un tema di Sor it has rather
passed me by, pleasantly showy but undistinctive; at first hearing
this performance made me sit up and pay real attention, made
me get up and play it again. Aided by the clarity and warmth
of the recorded sound, Viloteau brings out the considerable
inventiveness of the music and articulates a greater range of
mood than I had previously noticed. Particular pleasures include
the way in which the ascending triplets of Variation 6 succeed
the shorter semiquaver patterns of Variation 5. A thoughtful
performance which has alerted me to the (now obvious!) merits
of the piece.
The four movements
of Tansman’s Cavatina begin with a harmonically rich Preludio,
succeeded by a Srabande, the melodic poignancy of which Viloteau
doesn’t perhaps catch perfectly, one of the few reservations
I have about the disc. The ensuing Scherzino – a model of clear
and witty exposition – and the closing Barcarole, given a delightfully
limpid performance are, however, unqualified successes. I have
always understood Tansman’s Cavatina to end with a fifth movement,
‘Danza Pomposa’ – why is it not included here?
Brouwer’s Rito de
los Orishas is a masterpiece of Afro-Cuban music. An Orisha
is a spirit in the religious/mythological system of the Yorubas
of Nigeria and Benin, a manifestation of the God Olodumare;
transported slaves took these beliefs with them to the New World
and in Cuba they became fused with other belief systems such
as Palo and even Catholicism. There is a real sense of mysterious
religious rituals in the first of Brouwer’s two movements, a
sense of both possession and exorcism; the second movement’s
‘Dances of the Black Goddesses’ are perhaps rather less spiritual
in their nature, but benefit from a sensuous and beautifully
coloured performance by Viloteau.
Ginastera’s Sonata
– in four movements – is a work of real substance, richly various
in mood, in tempo and dynamics. Viloteau shapes detail with
loving attention and technical brilliance, but never loses his
awareness of the work’s larger shape. Whether in the inventive
effects of the second movement, evocative of the South American
jungle, rich in quasi-insect-noises and evocative of heat and
darkness, or in the last movement’s insistent Argentinian rhythms,
Viloteau plays the music with passionate commitment and perfect
technical control.
The Frenchman Roland
Dyens is himself a guitarist of distinction, a teacher (he is
Professor Guitar at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de
Musique in Paris) as well as a composer, almost wholly for the
guitar. I remember reading an interview with him in which he
insisted that he was essentially a classical musician, bit one
whose appetites were “greedy and curious”. Certainly he is a
musical syncretist, bringing together elements from a variety
of traditions. Something of such a process is hinted at in the
subtitles which the three movements carry: the first is designated
‘Takemitsu au Brésil’, the second ‘When Spain meets Jazz’ and
the third ‘Gismonti au cirque’. In the first, Light Motif’,
pointillist touches are grounded in some evocative Brazilian
phrases; in the second quasi-jazz riffs are in dialogue with
patterns more obviously part of the Spanish guitar tradition.
The last is a tribute to Egberto Gismonti – another musical
eclectic, a man who studied with Nadia Boulanger and Jean Barraqué,
has played with musicians such as Charlie Haden, Ralph Towner
and Jan Garbarek and has made his own unique contribution to
Brazilian music as guitarist, pianist and leader of the wonderful
group Academia de Danças. Fittingly, Dyens’ tribute is an extraordinarily
inventive piece, full of unconventional effects, full of echoes
of music from Bartok to Brazil, often fiercely percussive but
also fed by sudden delightful melodic flourishes; Dyens is himself
an accomplished improviser, like Gismonti, and there is a feeling
of brilliant improvisation to this piece, which makes a fitting
conclusion to an outstanding recital.
Glyn Pursglove
See also Review
by Dan Morgan
Thomas Viloteau
(guitar) 
