Sergio and Odair Assad
New Brouwer sonata wears virtuosity lightly
February 10, 2009The big news from the Feb.8 duo recital by guitarist brothers Sergio and Odair Assad was a solo work for Odair alone -- a beautifully crafted new piece by the reigning master of guitar composition, Leo Brouwer of Cuba.
The Assads’ recital in Travis Park United Methodist Church concluded the Southwest Guitar Festival and was part of the San Antonio Chamber Music Society concert series.
Brouwer’s “Sonata del Caminante” is in four movements, played without pause and linked by recurring material, rather like an oversized rondo. The harmonic ideas announced at the beginning seem to influence the whole piece, which hangs together as a remarkable unity despite its wide variety of textures and paces, from slow and spare to brisk traveling (aptly, considering the title) music. Though the piece requires a virtuoso player, which Odair Assad certainly is, both the music and the player wore their virtuosity lightly.
Together for the rest of the program, the Assads were consistently exciting and rewarding musicians, utterly unified in the big picture, but also showing some independence in the details. Most notable was the liveliness of the line they jointly spun, whether the mood was shadowy and meditative, as in Isaac Albeniz’s “Cordoba,” or jazzy and impulsive, as in Sergio Assad’s arrangement of Astor Piazzolla’s “Bandoneon,” which sounded less like a composed piece than like two great guitarists jammin’.
The program introduced some unfamiliar (to us) but welcome Brazilian composers. Radames Gnattali was represented by two pieces from his Suite Retratos. Both looked back at the salon music of the past from the viewpoint of modern jazz. Egberto Gismonti’s “Palhaco” explored the jazz-classical nexus. Bigger Brazilina names, Heitor Villa-Lobos and Antonio Carlos Jobim, were included as well in the form of guitar duo arrangements by Sergio Assad. That brother also composed the fascinating final work, “Tahhiyya li Ossoulina,” which layers Middle Eastern and Italianate elements.
Mike
Greenberg
