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Reviving the guitar (with a little help from the Internet)
Allen Krantz revives Wencelas Matiegka
Tom Purdom
The highlight of the latest "Concerts by Candlelight" program at Laurel Hill mansion was a de facto premiere by a new composer who died in 1830.
As Allen Krantz explained in his opening remarks, Wencelas Matiegka (1773-1830) was almost an exact contemporary of Beethoven (1770-1827) and wrote 11 sonatas for solo guitar that are comparable to the great sonatas for piano, violin and other instruments written by Beethoven and Schubert during the same period. But Matiegka's sonatas dropped out of sight after his death, and guitarists have rediscovered them through their explorations of the digitized scores that libraries are now making available through the Internet.
Only three of Matiegka's sonatas have been published. The other eight are only available electronically, from libraries. For his performance of Matiegka's Sonata in G Major, Krantz played from a score that one of his students printed out from the score available on the Internet.
Until now, Krantz said, guitarists could only envy the sonatas that composers wrote for other instruments during the period he considers the Golden Age of music. Solo works created for the guitar tend to be shorter and less ambitious. Matiegka is the only composer, Krantz feels, who has left us guitar sonatas that match the length and scope of the sonatas that other musicians get to play.
Guitar's inherent charm
The three-movement sonata lived up to the expectations that Krantz had aroused. It delivered all the complexity required of a good sonata, but it retained the inherent charm of the guitar and offered Krantz endless opportunities to display his nuanced and musically knowledgeable style.
The opening cantabile movement varied its evocative singing with march passages that included witty comments from the bass strings. The closing rondo featured a rippling rondo theme spiced with touches of Beethovenish playfulness as the upper and lower voices of Krantz's guitar took turns echoing each other.
As Krantz has often noted, guitarists have expanded their repertoire by cheerfully annexing works that major composers wrote back in the day when the guitar was considered a minor instrument. Most of Sunday's program consisted of pieces for violin and guitar that Krantz and other guitarists have arranged from works originally written for other combinations.
A knack for picking partners
Krantz has a knack for picking good partners— a valuable strength when you play an instrument that, like the guitar, often fills a subordinate or accompanying role. Krantz's partner for the Laurel Hill series is violinist Shannon Lee, a worthy member of a club that includes the flutist Mimi Stillman as well as Nancy Bean, the lead violinist of 1807 and Friends.
Lee's slow movements in the opening Handel sonata could have communicated more warmth, but her allegros delivered all the dash they required. Friedrich Burgmuller's Three Nocturnes for cello and guitar (arranged by the composer, in this case) ranged across all the moods customarily associated with nocturnes, with a burst of jagged street music in the middle. Krantz's arrangement of Debussy's Reverie for piano provided another reminder that there's more to Debussy's music than tone color.
Guitar replaces orchestra
For their finale, Lee and Krantz continued a tradition that's become a feature of their annual Laurel Hill appearances: Lee chooses a major work for violin and orchestra, and Krantz produces an arrangement in which his guitar replaces the orchestra. (Don't you wish you had the ability to play such games?)
For her 2011 challenge, Lee picked a doozy—Saint-Saëns's Introduction and Rondo Capriccio. The result was the kind of treat you can only enjoy in venues like the Laurel Hill living room: a ringside seat at a bravura performance that ranged over the violin's most appealing riffs, from darting melodies and lilting rondos to an all-out, go-for-broke finale. Krantz's guitar adaptation mostly played a supporting role, but he took the
lead in the places where Saint-Saëns pushed the orchestra into the foreground, and he provided an indispensable second voice in the places where
the violin and the orchestra function as equal partners.
As Allen Krantz explained in his opening remarks, Wencelas Matiegka (1773-1830) was almost an exact contemporary of Beethoven (1770-1827) and wrote 11 sonatas for solo guitar that are comparable to the great sonatas for piano, violin and other instruments written by Beethoven and Schubert during the same period. But Matiegka's sonatas dropped out of sight after his death, and guitarists have rediscovered them through their explorations of the digitized scores that libraries are now making available through the Internet.
Only three of Matiegka's sonatas have been published. The other eight are only available electronically, from libraries. For his performance of Matiegka's Sonata in G Major, Krantz played from a score that one of his students printed out from the score available on the Internet.
Until now, Krantz said, guitarists could only envy the sonatas that composers wrote for other instruments during the period he considers the Golden Age of music. Solo works created for the guitar tend to be shorter and less ambitious. Matiegka is the only composer, Krantz feels, who has left us guitar sonatas that match the length and scope of the sonatas that other musicians get to play.
Guitar's inherent charm
The three-movement sonata lived up to the expectations that Krantz had aroused. It delivered all the complexity required of a good sonata, but it retained the inherent charm of the guitar and offered Krantz endless opportunities to display his nuanced and musically knowledgeable style.
The opening cantabile movement varied its evocative singing with march passages that included witty comments from the bass strings. The closing rondo featured a rippling rondo theme spiced with touches of Beethovenish playfulness as the upper and lower voices of Krantz's guitar took turns echoing each other.
As Krantz has often noted, guitarists have expanded their repertoire by cheerfully annexing works that major composers wrote back in the day when the guitar was considered a minor instrument. Most of Sunday's program consisted of pieces for violin and guitar that Krantz and other guitarists have arranged from works originally written for other combinations.
A knack for picking partners
Krantz has a knack for picking good partners— a valuable strength when you play an instrument that, like the guitar, often fills a subordinate or accompanying role. Krantz's partner for the Laurel Hill series is violinist Shannon Lee, a worthy member of a club that includes the flutist Mimi Stillman as well as Nancy Bean, the lead violinist of 1807 and Friends.
Lee's slow movements in the opening Handel sonata could have communicated more warmth, but her allegros delivered all the dash they required. Friedrich Burgmuller's Three Nocturnes for cello and guitar (arranged by the composer, in this case) ranged across all the moods customarily associated with nocturnes, with a burst of jagged street music in the middle. Krantz's arrangement of Debussy's Reverie for piano provided another reminder that there's more to Debussy's music than tone color.
Guitar replaces orchestra
For their finale, Lee and Krantz continued a tradition that's become a feature of their annual Laurel Hill appearances: Lee chooses a major work for violin and orchestra, and Krantz produces an arrangement in which his guitar replaces the orchestra. (Don't you wish you had the ability to play such games?)
For her 2011 challenge, Lee picked a doozy—Saint-Saëns's Introduction and Rondo Capriccio. The result was the kind of treat you can only enjoy in venues like the Laurel Hill living room: a ringside seat at a bravura performance that ranged over the violin's most appealing riffs, from darting melodies and lilting rondos to an all-out, go-for-broke finale. Krantz's guitar adaptation mostly played a supporting role, but he took the
lead in the places where Saint-Saëns pushed the orchestra into the foreground, and he provided an indispensable second voice in the places where
the violin and the orchestra function as equal partners.
What, When, Where
Concerts by Candlelight: Handel, Sonata in E Minor; Burgmuller, Three Nocturnes; Matiegka, Sonata in G Major for Solo Guitar; Debussy, Reveries (arr. Allen Krantz); La Catedral for solo guitar; Saint-SaÓ«ns, Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso (arr. Krantz). Allen Krantz, guitar and commentary; Shannon Lee, violin. August 7, 2011 at Laurel Hill Mansion, Fairmount Park. (215) 643-7923 or mysite.verizon.net/vzeqfkn7/id14.html.
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