Customer Reviews

Jérôme Ducharme: Guitar Recital

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(0)
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This is some of the most incredible guitar playing I have ever heard. Jerome Ducharme is a worthy GFA winner. His sound is big, round and full. His technique is outstanding. His precision is unbelievable. His musicality is unmatched, and his repertoire choices are great pieces that provide a lot of musical variety on the album. With more material, Ducharme may become my favorite guitarists. This recording has had me screaming in disbelief of his immpeccable technique. Everything from the Spanish Romantic repertoire of Rodrigo and de Falla to the wild, animated atonal assault of Ginastera has the listener amazed by the technique, and pleased by his musical sensitivity. Every piece is well executed and brilliantly interpreted. I don't know that I could find something to complain about with this recording. Ducharme plays with bravado and excitement. It's very exciting to hear such a fabulous guitarist coming into the scene of the classical guitar world. None will be displeased by Ducharme's absolutely wonderful playing.

I bought this CD after hearing Jerome play at the GFA convention in Columbus, GA. The performance was (to me) incredibly beautiful and moving. The interpretations were so strong that it was easy to forget the degree of difficulty of the music. The Manen in particular was a revelation; while the musical language is much more tonal, I'd rank the Manen in the same league as Britten's Nocturnal as a modern masterpiece.

Ducharme's performance of the Ginastera (and everything else on the disk) are simply wonderful.

Lastly, this disk is a treat as the recorded sound is precisely as I remember the recital, and is to me as beautiful as a guitar can be.

5 stars.

I haven't been so impressed with a debut recording since that of Ana Vidovic--or even that of Manuel Barrueco, more than twenty years ago. As a matter of fact, I first heard Jerome Ducharme play more than a decade ago when he was a student at the Conservatoire in Montreal. I was on his year-end jury examination. A very fine player even then, but his musicianship has greatly expanded since. He spent a year studying with Oscar Ghiglia which may have contributed as Mr. Ghiglia is probably the most profound teacher of musicianship in the guitar world.

The repertoire chosen is interesting and extremely well-played. From a technical standpoint, the two fast scales in the Rodrigo Zapateado have never been played better (nor faster, I suspect). The musical substance of the repertoire is wide-ranging, but not all of the same interest. The Three Pieces by Rodrigo are of the highest quality, of course, but while I like and have performed the Suite by Quebec composer Jacques Hetu, it is not of the same level. And I have to say that the Ginastera Sonata seems to be shrinking as time goes on. The brilliance of the sounds seem to be less and less supported by musical interest. The competition piece by Dunne is just that, though pleasant enough sounding. That leaves the Homenaje by Falla which is both a tremendous piece of music and played brilliantly--and a fairly obscure piece, the Fantasie-Sonata by Juan Manen. This 18-minute meditation is one I've been interested in for many years, though I never learned it myself. There has never been a satisfactory recording to my knowledge. This is a pure revelation: an extraordinary performance of a remarkable piece (it reminds me more than anything else of the Liszt Sonata in B minor for piano). If for nothing else than this, Jerome Ducharme has earned his place in the front rank of the guitar world. May he give us many more fine and thoughtful performances such as this.

The selection of pieces is excellent.
The sperit of the guitarist is very present

Excellent performance and recording. A new star of classical guitar is on the horizon.