{TABLE} Five Preludes .................... Villa-Lobos Eludes Nos 11, 8, 12 ............. Villa-Lobos Choros No 1 ...................... Villa Lobos Sounds of Bells .................. Pernambuco The Girl from Ipanema ............ Carlos Jobim {/TABLE} BENJAMIN Dwyer's guitar recital last Friday lunchtime was enjoyable. A large audience in the National Concert Hall's John Field Room heard some fresh sounding playing of familiar repertoire, plus less well known music which, however, included some of the most compositionally interesting pieces on the programme.
It was unfortunate that the opening item, Villa Lobos's famous Five Preludes, received the least convincing performance. The playing was beautifully coloured and part writing was lucid; but weaknesses in rhythmic articulation made this simply structured music seem rather disjointed. Within a phrase Dwyer's rubato was well timed; between phrases it was not. All too often his pauses lacked that tension which leads on, and which can animate the question and answer dialogue which is so prominent in these pieces.
The preludes were followed by three of the same composer's Etudes. These intriguing pieces follow the example of Chopin's and Debussy's Etudes for piano, in exploring specific technical and compositional challenges. The panache of Dwyer's playing and the terse economy of Villa Lobos's ideas made for gripping music making.
The problems which affected the preludes did not reemerge, though I wondered if that was partly because the dance based rhythms of most of the remaining pieces left no room for them. Whatever the case, Villa Lobos's Choros No 1 and Pernambuco's Sounds of Bells sparkled, and were beautifully timed. They seemed spontaneous, as did Dwyer's improvisatory approach to The Girl from Ipanema, which ended the concert.