Alternatively
Classicsonline  AmazonUK   AmazonUS

Venezuelan guitarist and composer Antonio Lauro was little known outside Latin-America. This was until Andrés Segovia recorded his waltz Natalia in 1955. He then became one of the selected few composers for the guitar from his continent to be honoured in that way, the others being Villa-Lobos and Ponce. Lauro was greatly influenced by the folk music of Venezuela and his aim was to integrate the rhythms and melodies with structures derived from the European tradition.
 
On this disc there are principally three types of composition: those based on or influenced by folk songs, those harking back to renaissance and baroque and finally the largest work here, the Sonata. In this 18-minute work his exploration of the thematic and harmonic material is quite wide-ranging and it is a composition that requires some active listening. The first movement is in continuous forward movement whereas the second movement is a kind of resting point, calmly singing. Then he takes us on a thrilling journey in the third movement with the rhythmic elements from his folk music heritage constituting the backbone.
 
The Pavana (tr. 6) from 1977 is a tribute to 16^th century composer Luis Milan and it is dedicated to John Williams, and the concluding Suite is a homage to another great guitarist, composer and critic, John Duarte. It was written in 1981 and is a fine work, taut and thrilling,  in baroque tradition; the Giga is a show-stopper. The four Estudios are studies in counterpoint and here it is unavoidable to think of Bach.
 
The rest of the programme is made up of – mainly – melodious, easy-listening pieces of the kind that is so eminently suitable to the sound of the guitar, the lullaby Ana Florencia already a great favourite in our house. The swinging Virgilio is another hit and the group of five pieces (tr. 18-22) are a perfect unit of contrasting moods, Cueca chilena with reminiscences from his stay in Chile. It should also be mentioned that the waltz Flores de la montaña was composed by his teacher Raúl Borges and arranged by Lauro.
 
Victor Villadangos belongs to the elite of guitarists today with a couple of superb earlier issues in Naxos’s growing catalogue of guitar recordings (Volume 1 of Lauro's music is on Naxos 8.554348). Bearing in mind that this is a genre that doesn’t sell large quantities, we guitar lovers have to be extremely grateful for the continuous additions to this catalogue. Technically assured, rhythmically precise and with tonal beauty to match this player is a winner and the recording is what one has come to expect from Norbert Kraft and Bonnie Silver. Alejandro Bruzual’s notes are a fascinating read but I wish that he, like some other writers of liner notes, would present the music in the order it is played on the disc.
 
Antonio Lauro may not be the most important of 20^th century guitar composers but his music is always eminently listenable.
 
Göran Forsling
 

Return to Review Index