Kharacter
Jonas Khalil (guitar)
rec. 2019, Beletage, Stuttgart, Germany
HANSSLER CLASSIC HC20004 [41:22]
This is classical guitarist Jonas Khalil’s second album for Hänssler Classic. It contains a programme of works spanning some two hundred and seventy years. Khalil’s highly enjoyable first album entitled ‘Debut’ from 2016 has a similar layout to ‘Kharacter’ although in ‘Debut’ he includes original solo guitar works by composers such as Dušan Bogdanović and Malcom Arnold’s notable Fantasy for guitar. Three works here in ‘Kharacter’ are his original guitar compositions and the remaining four are his own solo guitar arrangements.
Born at Ludwigsburg near Stuttgart in 1983, Khalil was only eight when he was given his first guitar lesson. Inspired by pop and rock music, he started his own group aged eleven and began writing music. He has studied guitar under several eminent guitar teachers, beginning with Prof. Boris Bagger at Karlsruhe. His next guitar teachers were Prof. Olaf Van Gonnissen at Darmstadt and Prof. Johannes Monno at Stuttgart; he completed his formal studies with Prof. Laura Young at Salzburg. Reciprocating his own years of study, he is now a music teacher himself. Realising his passion for heavy metal music, the versatile Khalil plays lead guitar in German metal band Sacred Steel.
In addition to works written specifically for the solo guitar, arranging other composer’s non-guitar scores remains a valuable way of broadening his repertoire. New guitar arrangements is certainly an area of composition I respond to. Preparing arrangements is a practice often undertaken by guitar virtuosos such as Francisco Tárrega, Andrés Segovia, Julian Bream and Kazuhito Yamashita. Springing to mind are the latter’s solo guitar arrangements of large orchestral works, in particular Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition, Stravinsky’s Firebird and Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade.
The first of Khalil’s own compositions here is the Suite Apuntes - ‘Homenaje a Leo Brouwer’. Written in 2018 it is Khalil’s response to mark the eightieth birthday of renowned Cuba born guitarist, conductor and composer Leo Brouwer (b. 1939), which fell in 2019. Kahlil acknowledges that Brouwer’s music is a significant influence on him, saying about Suite Apuntes ‘I have tried to combine some of Bouwer’s typical tonal language with my own style’. Taking just over seven minutes to perform, its three movements - La Entrada del Maestro, Interstudio and Evocacion - Danza - serve as a fitting tribute. Especially enjoyable and splendidly realised is the opening movement, where Khalil is inspired by an image of maestro Brouwer walking calmly to the podium to conduct his orchestra. He has successfully produced a rather determined, serious movement containing distinct Spanish colours and atmosphere.
Kahlil’s Metal band’s Sacred Steel album The Bloodshed Summoning, has an electric guitar intro
developed from a single chord which influenced his six-minute work The Cascade Summoning from 2017. Yet another appealing score, it is mainly restless with a repetitive, surging, hypnotic feeling to it. In 2016 Khalil wrote his Fantasia Bachiana containing a melody closely resembling the J.S. Bach chorale, Wie soll ich dich empfangen (How shall I receive you) from the Christmas Oratorio, BWV 248. This Fantasia, redolent of the Late-Baroque era has a satisfying, courtly-dance-like quality.
The first of Khalil’s guitar arrangements are two works of Jacques Duphly a French keyboard player and composer. Duphly is best known for producing four books of Pièces de clavecin, published in Paris in 1744, 1748, 1756 and 1768 respectively. Based in the traditional French Late-Baroque harpsichord style of François Couperin and Jean-Philippe Rameau, Duphly’s works do contain some elements of aesthetic and stylish development. Kahlil has arranged two contrasting Duphly pieces: La Victoire, marked vivement and from book 2, is predominantly sprightly with an optimistic character, whereas the rondeau La Forqueray, from book 3, is imbued with charm and elegance.
Khalil has also included an arrangement of a work by prolific composer Henze, who wrote a number of works for the guitar. Henze’s Royal Winter Music, consisting of two substantial sonatas on Shakespearean characters, are the solo guitar works of his I encounter most often. An early work written in 1949, Henze’s Serenade for unaccompanied cello is cast in nine very short sections. Following only a quick check I have already noticed separate arrangements of the Serenade for double bass and for viola. Taking here some seven and a half minutes in total, this is a rewarding arrangement of the Serenade, an accessible, small-scale dance suite which, although not a weighty work, has imaginative features.
The final work on the album is Khalil’s arrangement of an excerpt from the hymne - Chaste fille de Latone from act four of Gluck’s 1779 opera Iphigénie en Tauride. This is the tragic scene in the temple when the priestesses lead in Orestes and sing a hymn to goddess Diana. Iphigénie is waiting at the altar with a knife to sacrifice her brother. The elegance and tender beauty of Gluck’s melody sound glorious on the guitar, which ideally underlines the contrasting tragic scene it accompanies.
I respond entirely to the precise and focused playing of Kahlil, who is such an adept performer. He persuasively employs a fresh and vibrant colour palette, realising a captivating level of expression. Recording at Beletage studio, Stuttgart, sound engineer Niko Lazarakopoulos has achieved first class sound, extremely clear with a satisfying sense of presence. Undeniably, too, Khalil’s guitar by maker Jakob Lebisch (Offenbach 2018) produces a quite glorious tone. Khalil has written the booklet notes which comprise of a brief explanation of each work. My only grumble concerns the playing time of this collection. Khalil’s previous album ‘Debut’ has a short playing time of only forty-three minutes; this new release is worse still, at a paltry forty-one minutes.
‘Kharacter’ is a fascinating and well-balanced recital collection. It is good to see the soloist continuing the tradition of guitarists expanding their repertoire by both composing original scores and making guitar arrangements of other works. The inclusion of ‘classic hits’ is not the focus here, so I doubt that the album will be the first port of call for someone relatively new to solo guitar works. Nevertheless, Khalil plays these guitar works quite magnificently, and the recording quality is ideal.
Michael Cookson
Previous review: Zane Turner
Contents
Jonas KHALIL (b. 1983)
Suite Apuntes, Homenaje a Leo Brouwer (2018) [7:18]
The Cascade Summoning (2017) [5:59]
Fantasia Bachiana (2016) [4:13]
Jacques DUPHLY (1715-1789)
La Forqueray, Pièces de Clavecin, Livre 3 (1756)
(arr. Jonas Khalil for guitar) [7:04]
La Victoire, Pièces de Clavecin, Livre 2 (1748)
(arr. Jonas Khalil for guitar) [6:09]
Hans Werner HENZE (1926-2012)
Serenade for cello solo (1949)
(arr. Jonas Khalil for guitar) [7:27]
Christoph W. GLUCK (1747-1787)
Anthem: Chaste fille de Latone, from opera ‘Iphigénie en Tauride’ (1779)
(excerpt arr. Jonas Khalil for guitar) [3:33]
