THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, May 12, 1996 TAG: 9605120179
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B7 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Music review
SOURCE: BY PAUL SAYEGH, SPECIAL TO THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
LENGTH: Medium: 52 lines
The Tidewater Classical Guitar Society concluded its season Friday night with guitarist Michael Lorimer in recital at Nauticus. The concert featured the world premiere of Thea Musgrave's ``Postcards from Spain,'' commissioned by the Society for Lorimer.
Musgrave's work highlights a gentler and more lyrical aspect of her craft than the dramatic and stormy subjects of her historical operas. The five short ``postcards'' make up a descriptive travelogue of Spain without being overly pictorial or self-consciously Spanish. The vocabulary and color of Spanish music is used sparingly but effectively. Particularly memorable are the stillness and poetry Musgrave finds in the second movement, ``Starlight on Compostela,'' and the drama of the final section, depicting Don Quixote and his windmills. Other sections portray a flamenco singer, the Alhambra, and a troubadour.
Lorimer played with a great deal of security and fluency, making a strong case for this new music. The composer was present to receive the audience's warm applause.
Musgrave's piece was part of a fascinating survey of guitar music from both the Old and New Worlds. Lorimer began with a set of transcriptions by Joaquin Turina and concluded with the music of Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos; in addition, he performed music by Isaac Albeniz, Francisco Corbetta, Francois Le Coq, and Augustin Barrios. Between selections, Lorimer talked at length about the music, demonstrating with excerpts from the program.
The Corbetta and Le Coq selections were performed on a Baroque guitar, an instrument with a different sound from its modern counterpart. The Baroque guitar produced a lighter, more penetrating sound, making up in brightness what it lost in the richness and bass resonance of the modern guitar.
Lorimer's playing was stylish, colorful and virtuosic where necessary; rapid chords were impressively clean-sounding. The extroverted Albeniz selections, though, could have benefited from more expansive phrasing and a more sumptuous tone. Here, Lorimer sounded a bit too cool and cerebral. That coolness, though, was well-suited to Villa-Lobos' more introspective pieces.
The Nauticus theater, a new performing space for the Society, offered excellent sight lines and a clear, somewhat dry acoustic, along with a spectacular view of the Elizabeth River and the Portsmouth waterfront. Lorimer's guitar was discreetly ``enhanced,'' although there was never any question that the sound emanated from the performer rather than a set of speakers. If sound enhancement is necessary, this was the ideal way to do it. by CNB