adrian
09-16-2004, 04:09 PM
By Sarah Bryan Miller
Post-Dispatch Classical Music Critic
09/13/2004
The St. Louis Classical Guitar Society kicked off its 2004-05 season on Saturday night at the Ethical Society with something a little out of the ordinary: a concert by a British guitar trio bearing the slightly unwieldy name of The New Pro Arte Guitar Trio.
The trio's members - Raymond Burley, Cornelius Bruinsma and Arne Brattland - are personable and highly capable performers. They're a low-key group with that necessary skill for ensemble of seemingly reading one another's minds, and a sense of genuine enjoyment in their playing. Each of them took it in turn to say a few words about the pieces on the program; they kept it on the light and short side, with just enough explanation to help our understanding.
Although they were plagued by tuning problems in the concert's first half, despite diligent dinking with the pegs between works and between movements, they offered much of great beauty. The trio opened with Brattland's arrangements of three pieces by Edvard Grieg: the "Peasant's Song," Op. 65, No. 2; Canon, Op. 38, No. 8; and the familiar "Norwegian Dance," Op. 35, No. 2. The first two of these offered delicacy and gentleness; the third was offered with great good humor.
The rest of the first half was traditionally Spanish music: the final three of Granados' "Danzas Espanolas," Op. 5 (arranged by Bruinsma), and a quartet of works by Albeniz - "Capricho Catalan," "Mallorca," "Sevilla" and "Cordoba," arranged by Burley.
The second half took the concert into much jazzier territory, with a surprisingly rich arrangement of a suite from Bernstein's "West Side Story." Unsurprisingly, it was a major crowd pleaser.
Roland Chadwick's "Letter from LA," notable in part for being composed for the trio rather than arranged for them, relied on percussive effects and more jazz idioms. The final group, three pieces by Chick Corea, tied it all together by combining a Spanish base with a jazzy overlay.
Uncharacteristically for a Guitar Society audience, this one got so carried away that they applauded between movements. The trio finally asked them to hold
it to the end of a work; that moment could have come earlier in the program.
Post-Dispatch Classical Music Critic
09/13/2004
The St. Louis Classical Guitar Society kicked off its 2004-05 season on Saturday night at the Ethical Society with something a little out of the ordinary: a concert by a British guitar trio bearing the slightly unwieldy name of The New Pro Arte Guitar Trio.
The trio's members - Raymond Burley, Cornelius Bruinsma and Arne Brattland - are personable and highly capable performers. They're a low-key group with that necessary skill for ensemble of seemingly reading one another's minds, and a sense of genuine enjoyment in their playing. Each of them took it in turn to say a few words about the pieces on the program; they kept it on the light and short side, with just enough explanation to help our understanding.
Although they were plagued by tuning problems in the concert's first half, despite diligent dinking with the pegs between works and between movements, they offered much of great beauty. The trio opened with Brattland's arrangements of three pieces by Edvard Grieg: the "Peasant's Song," Op. 65, No. 2; Canon, Op. 38, No. 8; and the familiar "Norwegian Dance," Op. 35, No. 2. The first two of these offered delicacy and gentleness; the third was offered with great good humor.
The rest of the first half was traditionally Spanish music: the final three of Granados' "Danzas Espanolas," Op. 5 (arranged by Bruinsma), and a quartet of works by Albeniz - "Capricho Catalan," "Mallorca," "Sevilla" and "Cordoba," arranged by Burley.
The second half took the concert into much jazzier territory, with a surprisingly rich arrangement of a suite from Bernstein's "West Side Story." Unsurprisingly, it was a major crowd pleaser.
Roland Chadwick's "Letter from LA," notable in part for being composed for the trio rather than arranged for them, relied on percussive effects and more jazz idioms. The final group, three pieces by Chick Corea, tied it all together by combining a Spanish base with a jazzy overlay.
Uncharacteristically for a Guitar Society audience, this one got so carried away that they applauded between movements. The trio finally asked them to hold
it to the end of a work; that moment could have come earlier in the program.