Both
the Dutch guitarist Susan Mebes and Brazilian Joaquim
Freire have impressive CVs as solo guitarists. Mebes
has made acclaimed recordings of, amongst others, Vicente
Asencio (Leman Classics LC 44201), Castelnuovo-Tedesco (Leman
Classics LC 42501) and Manuel Ponce (Leman Classics LC 42701).
Joaquim Freire’s recordings are equally distinguished, not
least an excellent recital of works by Ponce, Villa-Lobos
and Ginastera (Leman Classics LC 42601). Both have good
records as concert performers.
But,
of course, it doesn’t necessarily follow that if you
put together two top class soloists you will – hey
presto – have a top class duo. But the magic works
here. Mebes and Freire play together beautifully; the
intonation is faultless, there is a sense of mutuality
and interaction, of complementarity, which is very pleasing
to the ear. And yet, the CD is not without its drawbacks.
More
than two thirds of the disc is occupied by guitar duets
composed by Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, and these are
both delightful in themselves and eloquently played.
Though the adjective neo-romantic is sometimes applied
to Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s work; in these pieces neoclassicism
seems a more relevant a consideration, though it is a
particularly playful neoclassicism. Romain Goldron’s
booklet notes suggest affinities with the neoclassicism
of French composers such as Ibert, Poulenc and Françaix
and there is much good sense in the suggestion. There
is charm and wit in all of these pieces, a gracefulness
that works itself out in fugues and canons which are
the last word in
not being heavy-handed. Such
Bachian allusions as there are glancing and well integrated
into the larger elegance. The Sonatina Canonica is particularly
lovely. It is played with delicacy especially in the
gorgeous andantino marked ‘Tempo di Siciliane’ and vitality,
specially – but not only – in the closing Fandango en
Rondeau.
It
is with the transcriptions from De Falla and Granados
that a slight unease sets in. Not because there is any
drop in the quality of playing, which remains very high.
Rather because of the very nature of the exercise undertaken
here. I am not, of course, against the very idea of transcription.
My unease here relates to a quite specific concern. Susan
Mebes in her contribution to the booklet notes touches
on the relevant issue, though I draw conclusions different
from hers. She writes that “these works for piano and
orchestra, transcribed for two guitars on this CD, summon
up, in their original version, the sonorities of the
guitar; so what the transcriptions in fact are doing
is translating the works back into the musical idiom
first evoked by their composers. Granados even went so
far as to mark into his score the moments when he had
imagined the sounds of the guitar”. But he didn’t choose
to actually
use the guitar, when he easily could
have done. He, like De Falla, chose to evoke – but not
imitate or incorporate – the guitar, making use of other
instrumental resources; both were creating music which
alluded to the guitar and its Spanish traditions without
actually
being music for the guitar. In a sense
the fact that the music was powerfully reminiscent of
the sound world of the guitar without the guitar actually
being heard was a central point in the way that the pieces
worked. Transcribe the music for actual guitars and you
immediately lose a kind of doubleness and creative tension
which was at the very heart of the music in the form
in which the composers wrote it. In truth the transcriptions
are, while certainly very skilful and certainly very
well played, more merely ‘pretty’ than the originals,
more picture-postcard Spain, as it were. They are pleasant
listening but without the impact, without the musical
complexity implicit in the way the originals are both
for guitar and not-for-guitar, as it were.
It
is to the performances of the duets by Castelnuovo-Tedesco
that I shall return more frequently. They make an excellent
core to a good CD.
Glyn Pursglove
see also review by Paul Shoemaker
for
details
Susan
Mebes; Joaquim Freire (guitars) 
