Fine guitar performance

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 32958, 3 July 1972, Page 14

Fine guitar performance

The Spanish guitarist, Antonio Losada, delighted a capacity audience in the Museum Lecture Theatre on Saturday night with a rather well-worn but sensitively-played programme.

He left those who heard him when he was in Christchurch about four years ago, impressed with the extent to which he has since mastered the more subtle points of his art.

It was a little disappointing to be confronted with such a well-known programme (from memory, it was very much the same as he played on his last visit), but it immediately became obvious that the evening would be memorable when he coaxed from a simple Pavane by Luys Milan a charm and beauty that belied the limited use made of both musical resource and of the capabilities of the instrument.

Nearly all the first part of the programme was of little more than antiquarian interest. It was all well played, with fine attention to phrasing and dynamics, but when all is said and done, it had strictly limited musical value. The exception among the sixteenth and seventeenth century pieces was a bracket of three numbers by the English lutenist, John Dowland. These works are not often played, but Dowland’s compositional technique outstrips that of the other early writers, and these three pieces

had a more satisfying musical, as well as technical, complexity. The first half of the programme ended with works by Fernando Sor—three minuets and “Variations on a Theme from ‘The Magic Flute’.” The minuets were taken just a little too fast for Mr Losada’s own comfort, but the difficult variations were handled with style and agility. There was the odd missed note to detract from the performance, but I don’t think I have heard any guitarist get this right yet. After two well-known preludes and a study by VillaLobos, the programme reached its peak with lovely works by Tansman and Cas-telnuovo-Tedesco. The Tansman canzonetta was a particularly lovely work as performed by Mr Losada. It depends very much for effectiveness on the use of subtle

dynamic and tonal changes, and Mr Losada was inspired in his control of these factors.

The tonadilla by Castel-nuovo-Tedesco is a strangelybeautiful piece, gaining this quality more from the arbitrary scale on which it is based than from any compositional technique. Mr Losada’s fine phrasing brought out the basically lyric nature of the work to perfection. The last part of the programme consisted of three stock pieces for the guitar: Granados’s “Spanish Dance” and Albeniz’s “Granada” and “Leyenda.” They were played with all the verve of the Spanish dance tradition from which they come, without any sacrifice of tonal and dynamic quality. The programme was, over all, pretty trite, but it is a measure of Mr Losada’s musicianship that even the bestknown works were played with such a joie de vivre and superb attention to the most minute detail of phrasing and dynamics that they managed to overcome their overexposure.

Mr Losada’s choice of tempo was sometimes surprising. This spoilt the Sor minuets somewhat, but it worked well with other pieces, one of the Villa-Lobos preludes particularly. The recital, which was in aid of a fund for extensions to the museum, raised $550 for this cause.—D.McC.