Nemanja Ostojic
In his guitar, the big box of Crayolas
November 3, 2009A conflicting concert kept me from guitarist Nemanja Ostojic’s solo recital on Nov. 3 for Arts San Antonio, but he made an impressive showing in a brief mini-recital the night before at a private dinner thrown by ASA board chairman Erika Ivanyi and University of the Incarnate Word English department chairman Matthias Schubnell.
The young Serbian guitarist was the winner of the Southwest Guitar Festival’s international competition early this year. He’s now pursuing a master’s degree in music at Indiana University.
At the dinner, he previewed two works from his full recital program -- the fragrant “Un sueño en la Floresta” by the Paraguayan composer Agustín Barrios and the neatly crafted early-Modern Sonata by Spain’s Antonio José, who was killed by a firing squad at age 34 because he chose good friends (Federico García Lorca) in a bad time (the Spanish Civil War).
Two attributes stood out in Ostojic’s musicianship. The first was the astonishing palette of colors he summoned from his instrument. Crayola has nothing on this guy. He used those color resources thoughtfully, to clarify contrapuntal lines or bring out the character of a phrase. The whole palette shifted from generally warm tones in Barrios to a cooler spectrum, with a more metallic edge, in the José Sonata, which was clearly influenced by Ravel and by American jazz but just as clearly maintained a Spanish character.
The second notable attribute was Ostojic’s in-the-bones sense of rhythm and pulse, aided by a technique that rarely impeded the flow.
He was also highly personable, speaking casually and with good humor, but intelligently, about each piece before playing it.
One more thing: Ostojic just seemed to love playing the guitar.
A word about the venue: It is the good fortune (and good taste) of Ivanyi and Schubnell to live in a superb Terrell Hills house, a few years old, designed by architect Ken Bentley, one of San Antonio’s few remaining pure Modernists -- maybe the only one.
The house serves as a reminder that “Modern” is not a style, but an ethic, a set of classical virtues -- clarity, honesty, simplicity, economy of means and close attention to function, durability and livability. The materials are good but not showy, and the house is well suited to the display of the owners’ art collection, which includes a stunning profusion of early-20th-century German woodblock prints. The long, narrow, vaulted living area that stretches across the front proved a near-ideal acoustic for Ostojic’s guitar.
“Economy of means” does not, in this case, imply “inexpensive.” The house was once listed for sale in the same price league as the tawdry, tacky, tarted-up pseudo-ersatz-”Tuscan” abominations that in recent years have despoiled large swaths of the Hill Country with their misapplied rouge, dime-store jewelry and cheap wigs. It was refreshing to see real value for a change.
Mike
Greenberg
