With the snow falling outside there is nothing more calculated
to bring a feeling of warmth than a disc of guitar music - helped
along with a mug of hot chocolate with added brandy. There seems
to be something intrinsically sunny about the sound of a guitar
perhaps because of its association with Spain and Latin America,
where days are blessed with sun and blue skies, to a greater
extent than where I’m sitting anyway.
With the huge success of the latest guitar phenomenon Miloš
Karadaglic other new names on the guitar scene might go unnoticed.
It is to be hoped that this will not happen to Marco Ramelli
who at under 30 is already the Artistic Director of the Festival
Corde d’Autunno in Milan as well as pursuing an active teaching
career. Ramelli only began studying the guitar at the age of
19 yet in a few short years managed to win the inaugural Scottish
International Guitar Competition in 2011; he was a worthy winner
on the evidence of this disc.
They say you learn something new every day but as a reviewer
I learn several things every day. One of today’s revelations
was to discover just how much guitar music was written by Niccolò
Paganini the 19th century violin sensation, with
over 200 works involving the instrument. His three part Grand
Sonata, which dates from 1803 when Paganini was only 21
is delightful with more than a whiff of folk melodies about
it. As Ramelli writes, it was one of the most important works
for the guitar of the period and, along with others of his works,
anticipates “the first specialist guitar composers of the nineteenth
century”. Not being a guitarist but knowing Paganini’s reputation
I can well imagine that it is a work to be played by the skilled
professional. Ramelli makes it sound simplicity itself.
According to his notes the Spanish guitarist-composer Miguel
Llobet is another “pivotal personality in the history of the
instrument”. He specifically wrote works with the guitar’s unique
qualities in mind rather than using the piano and violin as
a basis for composing such pieces. His output for the instrument
numbers around a hundred pieces. His Popular Songs of Catalonia
were written in the period 1899-1918. They are lovely evocations
of that wonderful part of Spain. Llobet extends the scope of
these otherwise simple songs by fashioning them into an exploration
of the guitar’s potential with beautifully satisfying results.
His Scherzo-Vals, dating from 1909 is a tongue-in-cheek
amusing parody of a waltz.
Interestingly Rory Boyle’s Partita a quattro which
is a reworking of his previous Sonata for guitar
ended up as a test piece for the competition that Marco Ramelli
won. Indeed the first movement is marked Energico from
which the CD gets its title. What goes around comes around they
say and it is not without significance that Boyle, a native
of Ayr, was himself a composition student at the Royal Conservatoire
of Scotland where the competition was held and where he is currently
a tutor in Composition and Creative andContextual Studies. His
Partita is a really interesting guitar work that has both a
contemporary as well as a timeless feel. Melodically it seems
a far cry from its composer’s Scottish roots while the tempo
indications are very accurate in their descriptions of each
movement’s moods.
Toru Takemitsu’s music has always been a favourite of mine with
its highly individual and dreamlike sonorities. Ramelli’s choice
of his pieces are a perfect way to round off the disc. First
there’s a marvellously coloured representation of a painting
by Cornelia Foss then two songs, the first by Harold Arlen,
the wonderful Over the Rainbow, and finally Lennon
and McCartney’s magnificent Yesterday, surely two of
the most well known of all songs. Both are given a sympathetic
reworking by that brilliantly inventive composer.
If snow is still a feature where you are and, even if not, bring
a little sunshine into your life with this enjoyable debut disc
from a young guitarist about whom I’m sure we’ll hear a great
deal more.
Steve Arloff
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Marco Ramelli (guitar)