Johannes Möller, who turns thirty this year (2011), is an experienced
guitarist and composer. He played his first public concerts
when he was thirteen. About five years ago I reviewed
his debut solo recital disc with great enthusiasm and since
then I have also heard him in the flesh. The reason for his
appearing in the Naxos Laureate Series is that he was the winner
of last year’s Guitar Foundation of America Competition, one
of the most prestigious prizes in the world. Since Naxos issues
sell well and are relatively easy to find, in spite of the decreasing
number of record stores, chances are great that Möller will
reach wide audiences through this disc. And there could be no
better way of introducing him than the first track here. Un
Sueño en la Floresta (Dream in the Glade) by the very individual
Paraguayan Agustin Barrios Mangoré is one of the most beautiful
compositions for guitar I know and the playing is absolutely
marvellous. The guitar tone in itself is a wonder of beauty,
the phrasing so utterly sensitive and natural, the tremolo playing
so secure and dynamically graded.
From the 1970s the music of Barrios has had a revival, not least
through the advocacy of John Williams, and now his works belong
to the standard repertoire. Karel Arnoldus Craeyvanger still
awaits his revival, if it ever will come, but to judge from
the Introduction and Variations on a theme from Der
Freischütz, he was an accomplished composer. There is a
long introduction before the theme is presented, Agathe’s aria
Leise, leise, fromme Weise. The piece is long but not
overlong. The Dutch musician, who was a virtuoso on both guitar
and violin and also director of various musical societies in
his native Holland, transforms the theme so skilfully that one
sits enthralled throughout. And I am convinced it will stand
repetition as well. This was his Opus 3 and there are also three
Nocturnes in the Royal Library in the Hague – something for
Johannes Möller’s next recital perhaps?
Heitor Villa-Lobos is a better known quantity and though his
large output has both tops and flops most of his guitar compositions
have passed the test of time and are now frequently heard. Etude
No. 9 is particularly impressive and the Cadenza from the
guitar concerto an explosion of harmonies and rhythms. The Etude
No. 12, that follows almost attacca, is a kind of minimalist
perpetuum mobile. The concerto, by the way, was commissioned
by Andrés Segovia in 1951 but he refused to play it for several
years because it lacked a cadenza. Eventually Villa-Lobos gave
in and wrote this cadenza and the complete work was premiered
in 1959 with the composer conducting.
The Canadian composer and teacher Denis Gougeon was commissioned
to write Lamento-Scherzo as the set-piece for the 2010
Guitar Foundation of America Competition, so it’s no wonder
Möller has a special feeling for the work. The scherzo part
is rhythmically intriguing and catchy and could very well become
a standard piece.
Giulio Regondi was a child prodigy, making his debut in Paris
at the age of seven (!) and was known as ‘The Infant Paganini’.
When he was nine he came to London with his father and stayed
there for the rest of his life. His father seems to have eloped
with his son’s earnings, leaving the boy in poverty, but as
a grown-up he had quite a career all over Europe. After his
death he fell into oblivion but more than a century later his
compositions were found and edited by Simon Wynberg and published
in 1981. Rêverie is a beautiful piece, technically challenging
but utterly rewarding for listener and player alike. The tremolo
finale surely must rank among the finest music of its kind.
Cuban-born Leo Brouwer is arguably the most important contemporary
composer of guitar music. His large output of compositions includes
music for other instruments as well, chamber music, including
three string quartets, a symphony and several other orchestral
works, but it is the music for guitar, his own instrument, that
makes up the bulk of his oeuvre. Besides eleven guitar concertos
and some music for guitar ensemble, there are more than forty
compositions for solo guitar. The Sonata was dedicated
to Julian Bream who premiered it on 27 January 1991 at the Wigmore
Hall. The best description of this work is to quote Bream’s
note, reprinted in the booklet:
‘The three movements take their unity from a thematic idea introduced
at the beginning of the composition, a motif of eight notes
with the intervals of a major second and minor third. Fandangos
y Boleros begins with a short preamble which leads on to
the first subject. The second subject is in dotted rhythm accompanied
by a double octave pedal. Following the development section,
the coda quotes fragments from Beethoven’s Sixth Symphony,
the Pastoral. The theme from the first movement appears
occasionally in the Sarabanda de Scriabin but
with different harmonies. By re-tuning the lower string from
E to F, contrasting tone colours are achieved. La Toccata
de Pasquini offers the opening theme adding several intervals
of the second and third. Brilliant figurations and arabesques
give way to a brief return to the slow movement before the opening
music is heard once more.
It is a great piece of music and Möller’s playing is absolutely
stunning. Unfortunately there’s no recording of the sonata by
the composer since his playing career ended in the early 1980s
duo to an injury to a tendon in his right hand middle finger.
Möller’s own Poem to a Distant Fire (2010) was inspired
by his return to Sweden for a summer vacation where he encountered
‘pine-tree forests and meadows wearing a dress of thick fog
illuminated by the evening light’. He remembered a musical phrase,
a theme, that had occurred to him a year earlier and from there
he created a magical, dreamlike contemplation, immensely beautiful.
This music alone is worth the price of the disc and it will
be a regular companion during my late evening listening sessions.
The recorded sound is superb, as could only be expected when
Norbert Kraft and Bonnie Silver are in charge in their regular
venue St John Chrysostom Church in Ontario. Graham Wade’s liner-notes
positively bristle over with valuable information, some of which
I have passed on to the readers. We are only halfway through
2011 when I write this but I don’t expect to hear a better guitar
disc during the remaining months. A must for every guitar aficionado!
Göran Forsling
Johannes Möller (guitar) 
