Customer Reviews

Sergio & Odair Assad Play Rameau, Scarlatti, Couperin, Bach

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I am in awe of the accuracy and facility the Assad's display in this recording! If not for the fact that it would be impossible for a solo guitar performer to execute these pieces with the level of virtuosity the Assad Brothers do, the precision of rubato passages might lead me to believe that it is, in fact, one guitarist. This recording does not share the problem of being too quiet with a lot of other classical guitar recordings. It is sufficiently loud. This recording definitely belongs in the collection of every lover of classical guitar performance and/or Baroque music.

This album is indescribably incredible!Sonically,technically,and creatively flawless. One cnnot help but fall in love with the music and the performances in this collection.All of the music, which was originally written for the keyboard has now found a new life on the guitar. After hearing the perfomances one would never be able to imagine it being performed in any other venue but on the guitar and by these two virtuosi. Everything is clean, fluent, exciting and inspiring. The performances would make the composers weep with tears of joy. The Bach is beautiful, the Rameau brings to life the images the composer envisioned when writing his music; and the Scarlatti is down right scarey. They have made the impossible task of taking these keyboard masterpieces and transcribing them for the guitar possible and without detracting from the original. The brothers Sergio and Odair Assad are virtuosi of the highest order. To hear them perform is to be taken into a whole new world. They rank with greatest of the guitarists of our time. They are precise, dynamic, and yes, daring. They sound and perform as one,they become a part of the music,and they bring you along for their sonic journey.

This is a wonderful recording of classical guitar. One of the interesting (and perhaps ironic) bits is that all of the compositions on this CD were originally done for harpsichord, such as Bach's well known compositions for the Well-Tempered Clavier. The composers here - Domenico Scarlatti, Jean-Philippe Rameau, Francios Couperin, and Johann Sebastian Bach - are all masters of the keyboard composition, here adapated by the Assad brothers, Sergio and Odair.

From their official biography, 'As children, the Assads' mandolinist father guided their discovery of Brazilian music. Their uncanny ability to play guitar together soon evidenced itself, and seven years of study with the classical guitarist and lutenist Monina Tavora (a disciple and former pupil of Andrés Segovia) followed. The Assads' American career began in 1969, under the "Youth for Understanding" aegis. A major prize at the "Rostrom of Young Interpreters" in Bratislava, Czechoslovakia, launched their European career. They also achieved victory in the 1973 Brazilian Symphonic Orchestra competition for young soloists. They have performed in recital and with orchestra throughout France, Germany, Austria, Belgium, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Poland, Luxembourg, Slovenia, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Scandinavia, Australia, Great Britain, the Far East, Argentina, and their native Brazil.'

Their sensitivity to string instrument is well founded, and when they turned their attention to compositions for the keyboard, they found that with two guitars, there was a richness that is missing from the more simple 'monochromatic' performance of the keyboard.

As Sarah Cahill states in her introduction to this CD, there is a reason why these pieces sound natural being played on the guitar - harpsichord strings are plucked in similar ways to guitar strings, unlike piano strings which are struck by hammers. Scarlatti wrote for the Queen of Spain, among others. Couperin served in the French court, composing music for lute in addition to harpsichord. Rameau, an organist and composer, also comes from the French school, and J.S. Bach needs no introduction as the pinnacle of composing power in Germany of the eighteenth century.

Sergio and Odair Assad have spent a good deal of time developing a Baroque manner to playing these pieces on their guitars, as to be more faithful to the types of compositions. This CD is a true pleasure to behold, the textures and energy of the music being very vibrant and inventive in many ways.

Let me start by saying that I am not a musician or even a particularly well-trained listener, but I do have a sizable collection of baroque music and guitar music in general. I know what I like, and I absolutely love this recording. The music is beautiful, just beautiful; and the musicianship is, near as I can tell, flawless and expressive. Scarlatti and Bach, sure they are wonderful, but I have become a fan of Ramaeu since buying this CD.

My suggestion: Click on the links to sample the sort of music on this CD. The sound quality will not be very good, of course, but if these songs sound anything close to the sort of music that you like, then buy the CD. Oh, and get the best sound system you can afford. This recording merits being played on the best. Enjoy!

The Gramophone review of Andras Schiff's keyboard rendition of a Bach piece is misplaced in this space. Obviously someone at Amazon has made a mistake. I'd like to see the applicable Gramophone review of the Assad duo instead. The Assad brothers' stellar recording speaks for itself!

YES. I think this is the best classical guitar CD to date (6-1-99) , because the Assad brothers are the finest guitar duo ever. This is a landmark recording. It will be a benchmark to all future guitar duos, not only in transposing for guitar, but in interpretation, and performance. It is awesome. and the beauty and spirit is captured better than any guitar recording I've eve heard on this wonderful recording.

"The guitar is not the piano and not the harpsichord. It's right in the middle. The harpsichord is too rigid. You can do more on the piano. But this is really music for the harpsichord, so what the combination of two guitars gives to the music is the range of the piano and the sound of the harpsichord. These sonatas have been played by many guitarists, but they're difficult to transcribe for one guitar. With two guitars, anything is possible."
- Sergio Assad (in the liner notes for Ramaeu, Scarlatti, Couperin, Bach)

I could not agree more with Sergio's assessment of the guitar duo in relation to baroque keyboard music, and I've never enjoyed the genre more than I do listening to this album. The harpsichord and guitar are not as different as one might initially think; the two both use plucked strings, unlike the piano, which uses hammered strings. But the guitar has a much more expressive quality to it than the harpsichord, with a greater range of timbral possibilities. Its only drawback is the difficulty of arranging contrapuntal keyboard music, which generally features multiple simultaneous melodies, for the guitar. Adding a second guitar fixes this problem.
With any other guitarists, the performances might sound disjointed and lose the uniformity that a solo performer brings to the music; but the Assad brothers might as well be one person. They know each other's playing well enough that every dynamic and rhythmic nuance of the music is perfectly synchronized. The only downside: after hearing this album, the harpsichord will never sound good enough again.

I heard the "Cyclops" section of Rameau's inventive suite on XM classics, and I absolutely had to have this CD. I like Rameau and Scarlatti anyway, but I was unprepared for how the Assad duo could sound like one guitar, like a harpsichord but better. This music was originally for keyboard, but it sounds incredible on guitar.

The delicacy of the Assad technique is unequalled by any other guitarists I've heard. How they make this music, I'll never know. But it's one of my favorite cd's and so restful and refreshing. There is a lot of music on this cd and it's all wonderful.

The Assads have once again produced a unique presentation of songs some of us know by heart. This is a must-have addition to anyone's music collection, and would be an excellent starting point to begin an Assad collection.

Perhaps my favoriet of the 3 Assad brothers' CD's I've bought recently - but it's hard to choose because they are amazingly skilled, technically perfect yet completely human in their musical expression. A must buy.