Customer Reviews

Piano Trio Romantico / 4 Pieces for Guitar Duo

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

 

 

The etherial sounds of Manuel Ponce's music transport the listener to a place that we would all love to call home. The harmonic language of this composer is not rivaled by any other before him or since his death.

Ponce is an excellent composer worthy of an excellent rating. The Allegro energico from the Trío Romántico is my favorite piece on this album.

Ponce is an excellent composer worthy of an excellent rating. The Allegro energico from the Trío Romántico is my favorite piece on this album.

Let me mention the positive aspects first, the cello preludes and the trio are very well played, musical, and demonsrate the non-guitar personality of Ponce that most people (including myself) are not very familiar with. The only flaw in these works is the overuse of the pedal in the piano part, sometimes the sound blends too much, producing excessive echo, which makes it hard to hear bass lines, melody, and modulations unclear right away.

The reason i gave this cd 2 stars has to do with the horrible guitarist, carlo pezzimenti. this hack is truly polluting the world with his so-called art. He is utterly unmusical. He plays at only one volume, no rubato, and with the most brittle sound one can imagine (and not as a coloristic devise akin to Julian Bream either) He is sloppy, even during one line melodies. there are countless unintentional buzzes, which would be forgiveable if he was at least musical. I was surprised to see a guitarist of such low calibre on a label like this, playing with musicians of such high calibre.

the guitar and piano sonata is the worst of all, the two outside movements are not taken at the indicated tempo. They are entirely too slow (probably because this amatuer can't play at tempo yet), the opening allegro moderato is taken as an andante at best. the middle movement is ruined completely. with such a great opportunity for musical expression, and the appreciation of Ponce's harmonic ingenuity, pezzimenti throws it away and just hammers out the notes, ugly as can be. it makes me sick. he sounds more like a harpsichord (which is ironic since the piece was written for guitar and harpsichord originally) i would get the adam holzman recording of this piece on naxos if i were you.

the guitar duets are a little better than the sonata, because of the other guitarist, leslie enlow. but you can tell that these two guitarists just got together for this recording and are not used to playing together. their sound/tone doesn't match, they do not feel the music the same way (that's maybe why it sounds like its played to a metronome) and even then they can't play much of the music in rhythmic unison. listen to the scherzino, one person frequently plays earlier producing a hiccup effect. you can really hear their inexperience as a duo.

that's it, i hope better musicians record this repertoire in the future and that pezzimenti never records again.

I have played and loved Ponce's guitar music for many years and I always wanted to have a copy of the sonata for Guitar and Harpsichord (here in the form for Guitar and Piano). However, the guitar sounds so harsh and strained on the recording that it completely spoils the CD. If you want to hear this performed properly, have a listen to the more recent Naxos recording of Ponce's Guitar Music (vol 2). This is much better played and in the original harpsichord version which I find preferable. The other tracks on this CD are interesting, particularly the guitar duos which I'd never heard of - what a shame about the last three tracks!