A Concert review - When guitar meets zhongruan

Guitaresque attended a performance titled When Guitar meets Zhongruan, at the Esplanade Concert hall on 18th July 2009.

The performance featured Manuel Barrueco, one of the most notable guitar maestro in our times - along with the likes of John Williams, David Rusell, etc. So our expectations were understandably ver high.

And as guitar concerts go, this one would rank high in the "unusual" list, pitting a classical guitar against the likes of the 二胡，中阮，笙，唢呐，琵琶，etc. instruments of the typical chinese orchestra. In fact, what was most interesting for us, was that Barrueco was going to perform the well-known Concerto de Aranjuez (as the soloist, of course) backed by a full chinese orchestra (SCO)!

It was truly an eye-opener, as the various chinese instruments almost "simulated" their western counterparts in those familiar phrases in the concerto, and yet at the same time, brought a different kind of flavor to the song. Credit has to be given the arranger for coming out with such a novel idea in the first place.

Barrueco, of course gave a almost flawless rendition of Aranjuez - as you'd expect him to - but what we were most amazed with was his tone throughout the performance. His guitar sound was not only super clean and clear (kudos to Esplanade for the great sound support and wonderful accoustics), it was warm and mellow at the same time. The ease at which he scaled some of those "killer runs" in Aranjuez (particularly in the third movement) was truly astounding. It reveals his mastery of the instrument and its technique, when he could make a difficult passage look and sound easy to play, topped by the fact that his tonal control was never compromised at any time. Anyone who has played the classical guitar for some time would know that as the technical difficulty of the piece increases (as well as the tempo of the piece), it becomes more ardous a task to maintain a controlled and beautiful tone.

I would be disrespectful if I did not mention the artistry of the 中阮 maestro 刘星, who played a wonderful solo in his own composition Reminiscences of Yunnan, a 3 movement concerto composed as a tribute to a close friend of his, who lived in the chinese city.

The concert ended with an arrangement of Vivaldi's Concerto for 2 mandolins in G major, for the chinese orchestra, and the 2 soloists parts being arranged for a classical guitar and a zhongruan. The linking up of a western instrument with a traditional chinese instrument as they each took their turns to lead the voicing and run the scales and arppeggios was quite refreshing. Although I have to admit that comparing the 2 instruments and their tones, I really really prefer the warm (and in my opinion, more refined) sound of Barrueco's guitar compared to the almost banjo-like plucked sounds from the 中阮. A pity we couldn't have a chance to check out what guitar he was using. haha.

Review - Guitaresque at Library@Esplanade (4th July 2009)

The performance at the Library@Esplanade last Saturday (4th July) was another successful outing for Guitaresque. The crowd was appreciative (and i think the 40 odd chairs were filled, plus quite a number of people standing around too) and we played alright. While it certainly wasn't one of our best performance - in any sense of the word, and I believe the players themselves will agree - I felt the overall flow was smooth and given the limitations we'd faced, it has to be considered a success.

One bugbear this time though was the fact that the library staff did not seem to know much about the sound (miking) setup and their equipment. Possibly because the "right" people weren't around, we ended helping ourselves to the chairs, the mic stands, the mics, the wires, and possibly every other thing that we needed from the store room. We also had to do the mic testing (using the master control and all) ourselves, which resulted in a complete wastage of our 1hour supposed sound-test time. In the end, we did not play a single note in the sound test, and as there was another programme planned for 2-3pm time slot, we simply had to start playing "cold" at 315pm (the previous programme went overtime a bit) So considering all that, I believe we did reasonably well.

Some of our supportive friends in the audience gave us helpful feedback, regarding which songs they felt we did particularly well, and which ones they thought we were "smoking" our way through (trust a guitarist to know when another's bluffing eh? =P ). Rather surprisingly, La Tierra was mentioned as one of our better songs, by more than 1 in the group of friends who came to listen to us. I think credit has to be given to the compositional skills on Francis Kleynjans, who has managed to write a piece which is sophisticated, interesting and extremely 'guitaristic'. *if you play the guitar, you'd know what I mean by guitaristic, ya?* Clair de Lune was also mentioned as a song which came through rather well.

On the flip side - and not too surprisingly - Carnaval was picked as a song which sounded a little messy and under-rehearsed. I guess when your fingers are feeling cold and stiff, playing fast running scales and arppeggios aren't the best idea in the concert. Still, looking at the fact that we played this song as a "one-off" competition piece a couple of years back, and now are able to just play it as one-of-many in a 1 hour gig, I think there's reason to be positive about the group's progress.

That said, there's obviously much room for improvement, and the quartet should come back stronger and more prepared in September, when we perform in the Singapore Art Museum for our annual show-piece - Guitaresque Expressions.

Library@Esplanade 4th July

Guitaresque will be playing at the Library@Esplanade on the 4th July (Saturday) 3pm at the Open Stage.

This will be the third time the quartet has performed at this venue. We sort of like this cosy little corner at the nicely furnished library, as the nature of the performance can be quite informal and relaxed.

Songs we have chosen for this 45 min gig are:

1) Haruyo Koi
2) La Tierra
3) Appalachian Folksongs
4) Over the Rainbow
5) Moon River
6) Carnaval
7) Claire de Lune
8) Golliwog's Cakewalk
9) Variations on a theme on Shabondama

See you at the Library@Esplanade this Saturday!