Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, January 21, 1995 TAG: 9501230073
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 12 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SETH WILLIAMSON SPECIAL TO THE ROANOKE TIMES & WORLD NEWS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Christopher Parkening, who on his good days may be the best guitarist in the world as well, returned to a part of the world where he has a devoted following, repeatedly earning enthusiastic applause and yells of approval from the Olin Hall crowd. As he nearly always is, Parkening was accompanied by his former student and protege David Brandon.
Parkening is one classical performer who can seemingly do no wrong in these parts. Said Jennifer Obenshain, a North Carolina college sophomore who drove in with her boyfriend for Parkening's appearance, ``I love everything about him. Even the way he sings to himself when he plays, not to mention how cute he is.''
(She wasn't imagining the singing part. Parkening has the habit of grunting or humming to himself as he plays, which is clearly audible in smaller spaces like Olin Hall.)
Christopher Parkening is a magnificent musician. No matter the repertoire, he brings to it a nuance and deep well of emotion and expressiveness that makes the simplest dance tune a revelation. He long ago reached the point at which the fingerboard ceases to pose technical difficulties, and all of his musical intelligence seems directed to matters of interpretation.
In the oriental-sounding ``Koyunbaba'' by Carlo Domeniconi, for example, he sustained a blindingly fast ostinato pattern on the lower strings while a strangely hypnotic melody emerged in the upper register.
In the last of the ``Three Preludes'' by Heitor Villa-Lobos, he negotiated the passage near the end entirely in harmonics with an exquisite delicacy. So moved was the audience that, thought it was previously plagued by wintertime hacking and wheezing, you could have heard the proverbial pin drop.
On this eighth date in a 10-concert tour, Parkening opened with the familiar ``Mounsier's Almaine'' of Daniell Batchelar and a fantasia by John Dowland. This was followed by the ``Suite No. 9 in D Minor'' of Robert de Visee, in a transcription for the guitar by Parkening's old teacher, Andres Segovia.
A fine display of Parkening's mastery of tone production was next in the ``Danza'' of Diego de Torrijos. In this dark Spanish piece, Parkening evoked a rainbow of colors and timbres from his instrument, from mellow legato passages to harshly metallic tones produced with nails near the bridge.
David Brandon joined Parkening for ``La Volta'' by William Byrd and ``The King's Hunt'' by John Bull. Parkening finished the first half of the concert alone with Isaac Albeniz's standard ``Malaguena,'' the Villa-Lobos preludes, and ``Koyunbaba.'' After a virtuoso rendering of that piece, he received a standing ovation and shouts of ``Bravo!''
David Brandon rejoined Parkening for the final two scheduled numbers of the concert, the ``Two Spanish Folk Songs'' of Thomas Geoghegan and the ``Cancion and Danza Finale'' of Jorge Morel.
The Olin Hall crowd almost literally refused to let Parkening leave the building. For their first encore they did Manuel de Falla's ``Miller's Dance.'' Returning without instruments, they were summoned back for the folksong ``El Pano Maruno.'' And when Parkening returned to the stage alone, the audience gave him another standing ovation with yells and whistles, after which he rewarded them with a solo version of ``An Afro-Cuban Lullabye.''
Seth Williamson produces feature news stories and a classical music program on public radio station WVTF (89.1 FM) in Roanoke.
by CNB