Sergio Assad is perhaps best known as a performer, most often
appearing with his brother Odair as the Duo Assad or the Assad
Brothers. His family being thoroughly musical, Assad learnt
the guitar as a child and was soon a very proficient instrumentalist;
by his early teens he was already composing. He studied classical
guitar with Monina Tavora and later was a student of conducting
and composition at the Escola Nacional de Música in Rio
de Janeiro. His musical interests cross many of the conventional
boundaries - he is just as likely to draw on the classical tradition
as on Latin American models or, for that matter, on jazz or
folk music. As composer and/or performer he has worked with
a remarkable range of artists, including the jazz saxophonist
Paquito D’Rivera, Yo-Yo Ma, the Turtle Island String Quartet
and the American-Italian violinist Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg.
Assad has made many successful arrangements for guitar (alone
or in a chamber ensemble) of music by European composers, such
as Debussy, Scarlatti and Rameau. He is, in short, a musician
of wide knowledge and open-minded sensibility. Such qualities
are well represented on this current disc.
The young Greek guitarist Thanos Mitsalas has recorded a large
part of Sergio Assad’s original compositions for solo
guitar. The CD comes with a booklet note by the composer and
we can therefore presume that he approves of it - though he
doesn’t appear to have been involved in the conception
of the album, since the first sentence of his note reads thus:
“Greek guitarist Thanos Mitsalas recently surprised me
with this recording of a substantial part of my music written
for solo guitar”.
Mitsalas seems thoroughly at home in this repertoire. The syncopations
of the first of the three divertimentos appear to come naturally
to him; so do the relative formalities of the Sonata (a particularly
interesting work). Remembrance and Farewell were written as
film music and get attractive and evocative performances. Fantasia
Carioca, written to celebrate the city of Rio de Janeiro, is
a striking tone poem, playfully (and thoughtfully) various in
tempos and phrasing, and Mitsalas invests it with real feeling.
Everywhere one senses a vitality of personal commitment and
disciplined freedom in his interpretations.
Thomas Mitsalas (b.1972) is an impressive soloist and here he
throws a rewarding light on some interesting compositions. He
benefits from a recorded sound that is intimate without being
over-close.
Glyn Pursglove
Thanos Mitsalas (guitar) 
