Customer Reviews

Almost a Song

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I love it when a guitarist offers us new material, and this CD is heavy with it. It is a shame that Chassain didn't follow this recording up with more adventures in new music, but the money to do so is often missing unless you're an Isbin or Williams. The recording starts off with Drei Tentos, a rarely heard treat, my ears only previously having heard a rare out-of-print recording of it by the Canadian guitarist Laura Young. Preludios Epigrammaticos and All In Twilight are easy to find but the recordings here are fine.

About 40 minutes of the 69 minute recording, features four world premiere pieces. Graphic by Georges Delerue is an interesting piece and the composer dedicated it to Chassain, though sadly Delerue died before ever hearing it performed. The only other recording of Delerue that I'm familiar with is Mosaique from Eleftheria Kotzia's hard-to-find The Blue Guitar CD. Another premiere recording is Otoñales by Antonio Ruiz-Pipo, a composer for both the guitar and piano whose compositions have been covered by Tennant, Isbin, Honti, Field, Yepes, Alberto Ponce and others. The third premiere piece is Etoiles, authored by the performer. Oddly, the piece is not discussed in the notes, and I would have thought that evocative titles like Skyline and Funeral Dance deserved some sort of history behind the names. The recording ends with a very modern sounding guitar/viola duo that deserves a close listen.

Fantasy Divisions was composed in 1969 by the English composer Stephen Dodgson is not a premiere recording, but has been seldom recorded and is worth mentioning. It has been previously recorded by Stephen Reck, probably John Williams (because he has a fingered edition of the work), and possibly Julian Bream, because Bream suggested solo guitar composition to Dodgson when he met him in 1949. Dodgson has composed for guitar duet and trios, flute, orchestra, string quarter, and many other instrumental combinations and has written a guitar concerto recorded by Williams. Most of his dozen solo guitar pieces either haven't been recorded, or are out-of-print, but if you like what you hear on this recording, then check out an exceptionally fine trio of solo guitar pieces on Mediterraneo by Eleftheria Kotzia, a recording that every guitarist should own for its host of great ethnic solo guitar pieces.

This is a very fine recording on which Chassain's technical and artist prowess are evident on most of the pieces, however string noise and other sounds, perhaps breathing, are evident on some of the quieter deliveries. Ironically, his own compositions suffer the most, hence the one star deduction. As is usual for my musical reviews, I don't comment on the music itself because musical taste is such an individual thing. Besides, I'm no one to ask because I generally like the sounds of contemporary guitar, and this is most definitely a contemporary guitar recording. Guitar music lovers who only like the "straight" melodic sounds of Bach, Sor, Tarrega or even 20th century pieces like Domeniconi's Koyunbaba, probably won't like most of these pieces though they are sans a lot of modernistic special effects. Listeners who are a little more tolerant of new sounds will probably find much to like in the Brouwer, Dodgson and Ruiz-Pipo pieces. I found them to be very contemplative and filled with melody. I also thoughly enjoyed Almost A Song and found it to be a rare wonderful marriage of viola and guitar. I actually liked the viola better than the guitar as together they created a feeling of melancholy.