The first six recitals of Dublin Guitar Week (which will continue on March 2nd) included an all Flamenco evening by Daniel Casares and an all Bach performance by Frank Bungarten. One authentically Spanish and the other authentically German with little in common except an instrument; the guitar's dual personality could not have been more clearly delineated.
Casares explored the various Flamenco styles and rhythms in an excitingly improvisatory manner, as if he were plucking inspirations from the air and allowing them to dictate their own course through his hands, expressing themselves in harsh, jangling tones, or in the merest whispers as the highly decorated melodic lines rose to a climax of fervour or died away into the faintest of echoes.
Allied in style but at a remove, was the recital of songs given by Jose Maria Gallardo del Rey (guitar) and Marina Pardo (mezzo soprano). Eight of Lorca's arrangements of Old Spanish Songs, De Falla's Seven Popu- lar Spanish Songs and Gallardo del Rey's own Songs of Life betrayed the Moorish influences on Andalusian music even more in the singing than the playing as the voice faithfully followed the twists and turns of the songs; one got the impression that the performers would have liked to break free of their printed scores.
It was unfortunate that no texts or translations were provided; Lorca's arrangements pall after the repetition of a couple of verses, and one would have liked to know more about Songs of Life than the mere titles. Gallardo del Rey's transcription of the original piano parts by Lorca and Falla made them sound as close to the Flamenco tradition as his own Songs of Life.
Miguel Angel Lejarza played a selection from Granadas and Albeniz one lunchtime. These pieces, written for piano but greedily appropriated by guitarists, can be played in the Flamenco way or in the classical manner; Angel Legarza chose the former and made, for example, Cadiz by Albeniz sound less true to the original than the same piece performed at another lunchtime by John Feeley.
Feeley is a player of the greatest refinement and his gently meditative style made the transcriptions of Albeniz's Suite Espanola more Spanish than ever. He was even more effective in his transcription of Bach's Cello Suite No 1, played with all the delicacy and singing tone of a vihuela (that less powerful predecessor of the guitar).
I could not attend the recital by Jerry Creedon (guitar) and Eilis O'Sullivan (flute), but was pleased to be able to hear Frank Bungarten play his own transcriptions of Bach's Partitas in B minor and D minor. This was a recital of great transparency, but for me Feeley had the greater luminosity.
Dublin Guitar Week continues until Sunday: 01-6682024
