Guitars form round the world

THE 15 concerts of Dublin Guitar Week 1996 ranged over five centuries and more than a dozen countries with works for one, two, three and four guitars. No fewer than 10 Irish composers contributed and five, of them played as well their compositions were, as one might expect, most apt for the instrument.

John Feeley's recital included Four Pieces For Guitar by Jane O'Leary, E. Motion by Dawn Kenny and Niagara Falls on Thomond by Michael Howard, as well as some of Feeley's own arrangements. O'Leary and Kenny were keen to push the instrument to its limits, whereas Howard's jazzy, dance a mixture of Irish and American influences stayed within bounds, but was all the more effective for that.

Feeley began with a selection of 16th century pieces by Milan, Narvaez and Mudarra, played on the instrument they were written for, the vihuela, a slender guitar strung like a lute and with a more austere sound than the conventional guitar. The clarity of the polyphony in these pieces was noteworthy and their eschewal of vibrato and glissando and harmonies made ordinary guitar tone almost vulgar in its opulence.

The Mr Dwyer's Fancy of James Wilson was played by the Trio Cervantes with a happy enjoyment of its astringency, but the audience seemed to prefer the mellifluousness of Aran Corcoran's Hommage a Ravel. Corcoran's Prelude, also for trio, was jocosely introduced as "Faure's bad dream", a description that gives quite a good idea of the piece.

In Alan Grundy's recital, he played three of his own pieces, the most appealing being Tango Ultimo.

None of the Irish pieces could be said to equal in intensity the pieces by Toru Takemitsu Luciano Berio and Hans Werner Henze, performed by Reinbert Evers in his recital. In these one was hardly conscious of the limitations of the guitar, though to be fair the limitations are more apparent in many arrangements that flesh out the repertoire. Berio's Sequenza XI, like all the pieces in the series of Sequenze, was a sort of encyclopaedia of instrumental strategies, but the Takemitsu and the Henze were less beholden to the instrument than to the composer's established musical personalities.

No guitar week would be complete without a representative of the flamenco tradition, with its emphasis on flamboyant playing, on the melodic line, and its use of Eastern ornamentation. Rafael Riqueni played his Motivos Andaluces with immense verve and more than most guitarists, he had the gift of communicating with the audience.

The linking of flamenco guitar (Riqueni) and classical guitar (Jose Maria Gallardo) in Riqueni's Suite Sevilla on the final night in the NCH produced a colourfully Spanish atmosphere, but the sense of free improvisation that was a feature of Riqueni's solo recital was less evident. The classical guitar was played in flamenco style so there was not much benefit in having a classical guitar instead of a second flamenco one. Two flamenco guitars might have brought the evening to an even most rumbustiously traditional close.