The Brasil Guitar Duo offers vivacious, sensitive, clear, carefully balanced, and splendidly engineered performances that are technically impeccable and stylistically right on the money. A most enjoyable and stimulating release, and not just for guitar fans. -- ClassicsToday.com

The widely ranging, innovative works of prolific Cuban composer and former concert guitarist Leo Brouwer, among the most often performed internationally, have conferred upon him world acclaim, recognition and renown. In this recording his progressive, imaginative contribution to extending the guitar duo’s horizon is on full display. Subtle allusions to dance styles, virtuosity and rhythms referencing Cuban folk music highlight these exciting pieces that include the special sonorities of Per suonare a due to the international voyage in four movements Sonata de Los Viajeros.

A native of Cuba, Leo Brouwer is universally acknowledged as one of the most challenging and innovative of contemporary composers. This program brings the guitar into consort with the bandurria, a small lute dating from the 16th century and perennially popular in South America, the combination perfect for expressing the rustic rhythms of Cuban folk style in M�sica Incidental Campesina. This recording covers a kaleidoscopic range of techniques and emotions, from political martyrdom in Chile to the immense vistas of Brazil. The Sonata para Bandurria was composed for one of the virtuoso performers on this recording, Pedro Chamorro.

This recording presents some of the most significant early pieces by the Cuban composer Leo Brouwer (b.1939); it also includes other works, such as Hika from 1994 and the third and fourth series of his Estudios sencillos (1981), which show clear similarities with the composer's early style. First to be composed of the works here is a Danza caracteristica from 1956. A popular song melody forms the basis for an Afro-Cuban flavored fantasy. The Fugue No.1 dates from the following year, when Brouwer was still a teenager: having outlined a theme of Baroque proportions he takes a fairly free attitude to its contrapuntal elaboration, anticipating the concise play of fantasy in the Tres Apuntes of 1959. Having soon after moved to the US, Brouwer composed the first two books of the Estudios sencillos out of financial necessity, but they have proved among his most enduring and successful works, drawing energy not only from his Cuban heritage but the didactic economy of the Mikrokosmos by Bartók. Almost all of the third and fourth books from the series date from 1981; although Brouwer had both moved back to Cuba by then as well as moved on in his own style towards a more neo-romantic language, he rediscovered the lively economy of thought which runs through the earlier studies, combining it with both neoclassical harmonies and even chance procedures to produce among the most significant collections of guitar studies from the second half of the last century. ‘These short pieces reflect all of Brouwer’s creative genius,’ says Frédéric Zigante, ‘and I have always been fond of them, first as a young student of guitar and later as a guitar teacher. To me, they are an ideal method for weaning young guitarists from the didactic repertory of the 19th century.’

Leo Brouwer is universally acclaimed as an innovative composer, and this fifth volume of his complete guitar works contains some of his longest and most ambitious pieces. Danzas Rituales y Festivas Vol. 2 covers the gamut of virtuosic techniques and includes a movement dedicated to Pedro Mateo Gonzalez, while Brouwer considers the Sonata del Pensador to be ‘one of my most valuable pieces.’ Rich in Cuban rhythms, introspection and astonishing virtuosity, Brouwer’s work is the result of a lifetime of musical exploration alongside a passion for music of the past.

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REVIEW:

Much of the disc does not call for extended periods of virtuosity, but the music requires an inner feeling for the composer so as to provide a shape to movements that are frequently slow moving and sparing in notes. The distinguished Spanish guitarist, Pedro Mateo Gonzalez, has an affinity to Brouwer.

– David's Review Corner (David Denton)

Margaret Brouwer (born in 1940) is head of the composition department at the Cleveland Institute of Music. Based on this excellent new Naxos recording, she has an individual voice with a fine ear for orchestral colors. Her 2002 Concerto for Evelyn Glennie? Aurolucent Circles ?is immediately arresting, with its powerfully phrased opening voiced in the lower strings. The evocative entrance of Glennie in its potent mystery reminded me of some of Holst?s outer and more arcane planets. This is appropriate, as the concerto?s first movement is titled ?Floating in Dark Space.? Besides virtuoso passages for the soloist accompanied by full orchestra, the work has strongly contrasting sections employing two concertino groups which show off the very fine first-desk players in the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic. Glennie?s solos cover a kaleidoscopic range of percussion instruments and colors. The second movement, ?Stardust,? takes those colors and plays them about the stage, drifting and more often sweeping through various sections of the orchestra. The final movement, ?Cycles and Dances,? continues the notion of motion about and through the orchestra in a frenetic dance interrupted by lower brass?a favorite gesture of Brouwer?s. Glennie is the star around which all this revolves. The recording of the concerto (and the remainder of the disc as well) is both exciting and detailed, with a convincing sense of space around the instruments.


Mandala was inspired by a Tibetan sand painting and a Dutch psalm melody (Psalm XCI in the Dutch Reformed hymnal.) The trombone intoning the Psalm tune could equally be playing a version of the Buddhist om. Adding to this interesting musical-cultural mix are musicians whispering barely audible bits of random text, always with the ever-present Psalm never far from the surface. Whether this adds up to a work that will stand up to repeated hearing remains to be seen: I have a strong feeling it well may.


Pulse is an accessible and attractive score with an unexpectedly melismatic theme heard mainly from the winds and then the solo violin. As someone who usually appreciates the elegiac mood, I was looking forward to hearing Remembrance, dating from 1996 and the earliest score on the recording. It is affirmative rather than mournful, but perhaps somewhat long for its material.


Brouwer?s musical commentary on the rapid pace of 21st century life is expressed in the disc?s final work SIZZLE . Three trombones and a horn play a similar role here as in Mandela : they stand apart in time and space, representing different currents in a fast moving stream.


Gerard Schwarz?s performance of all these works is authoritative and convincing. He is ably abetted by his orchestra and the fine production and engineering.


FANFARE: Michael Fine

20TH CENTURY GUITAR WORKS TIM

The ensemble writes of their new release: “Undoubtedly our interest and passion for the works composed throughout the 20th Century have informed the choice of repertoire proposed in this record – the result of a long period of study and artistic collaboration. This repertoire has been part of our concert programs for many years and represents four major milestones of the chamber music repertoire for the flute and guitar. Each work proposes a different compositional style – peculiar musical grammars and language with a varied and contrasting artistic vision delivered by each composer. The album opens and closes with water, acqua, (in Algherese dialect, aigua) which has for many centuries been a source of artistic inspiration, subject of myth and for some civilizations, even religious worship.”

REVIEW:

This new release by Stradivarius records features the impeccable artistry of international award-winning guitar and flute duo Cordas et Bentu. Flutist Francesca Apeddu and Maria Luciani have been refining their sound together since they first played as an ensemble in 2013. They released another album together, Portrait of Sardinia earlier in 2021 from Brilliant Classics. That recording was dedicated to new music for guitar, not flute and guitar duo. Out of the four discs in the set there are only two pieces that include flute. Aigua is their true first release dedicated to the addicting sound of flute and guitar duo.

Aigua is dedicated to the theme of water, connection to the natural environment, and the duo’s attachment to their beloved homeland, Sardinia. There are four multi-movement works included that take the listener on a relaxing journey. Takemitsu’s Toward the Sea opens the album in a passionate and picturesque performance. Since it is Takemitsu’s only duo for flute and guitar there is no shortage of available recordings. Apeddu encapsulates elements of the shakuhachi and modern flute playing perfectly. They also both have multiple sections where parts sound spontaneously improvised. This piece acts as an attention getter for the album. My urge to keep listening increased more and more as the work progressed.

The second work on the album is another well-known duo. The Sonata for Flute and Guitar by Françaix is an exercise in maintaining flawless light technique and blending. This return to a tonal center gives the listener’s ear a chance to settle and offers a stark contrast to the previous piece. The liner notes characterize the sonata as being filled with shrewd humor and an effervescent vivacity. I honestly think this describes most of Françaix pieces. Using the guitar as an accompaniment instrument, instead of piano, offers an entirely different level of balance and light articulation. Apeddu and Luciani seamlessly blend with the flute melody melting into the strumming guitar.

Cordas et Bentu Duo didn’t know how much they had to work to please me during my first listening of Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s Sonatina. To be perfectly honest, I have never liked Tedesco’s Clarinet Sonata with piano. I remember learning it when I was younger and felt like it was torture. Apparently the not-so-secret ingredient to this new revelation is the guitar. Sonatina for Flute and Piano has me rethinking everything I ever thought I knew about Tedesco. I must explore more of Tedesco’s guitar works. The world needs more beautiful and introspective music like this, and the other works included on the album.

The last piece on the album returns the listener back to the theme of water in Brouwer’s Mítologia de las aguas (Mythologies of the Waters). The water is deep, dark, and mysterious. Both the flute and guitar are the water, the wave, and the atmosphere at the same time. Similarly to Takemitsu’s duo for flute and guitar, this is also Brouwer’s only duo for flute and guitar.

The liner notes state that the recordings were made at the Church of Santa Maria Maddalena in Casalborgone and that you can sometimes hear bats. Apparently there was a colony living in the organ pipes, which had become a nuisance. I became unexpectedly interested and devoted to trying to hear the bat sounds on the album. There are a couple of moments in this piece that I believe I heard the rustling of wings. The only negative thing I can say about this album is that it isn’t long enough! This is likely the first of many albums to come for Cordas et Bentu.

-- Fanfare (Natalie Szabo)