The opening concert of the Adelaide International Guitar Festival brought together two wonderful guitarists, Ricardo Gallén and Bogdan Mihailescu, presenting two contrasting styles and performances. What a marvellous start it was to this year's Festival, with Mihailescu providing the first half of the concert. The Romanian guitarist is only 24 years old and has already established an enviable reputation, with a string of awards to his name. Not only is he a superb musician, but the first few numbers were his own arrangements, another side to his talent.
He began with two short pieces by lutenist and composer, Vincenzo Galilei (1520-1591), father of Galileo Galilei, displaying his skill as an arranger, as well as his wonderfully delicate touch and sensitive playing. He then performed his own arrangements of the second and third movements from Bach's Italian Concerto in F Major, the adagio and the presto with considerable virtuosity. Harmonie du Soir, by Johann Kaspar Mertz, gave Mihailescu a chance to show his romantic side.
He closed his half of the concert with Serbian-born American Dušan Bogdanovi?'s Six Balkan Miniatures. These are a collection of fascinating short pieces that include percussive fingerstyle techniques, in which the body of the guitar is used as a drum. My guest informed me that the last of the six is also a well-known and popular dance piece in Greece.
Following the interval, Spanish master, Gallén, offered a very different selection of pieces, all by Latin American composers, with much of that colour and fire that this suggests. While Mihailescu is making a name for himself in the early stages of his career, Gallén is already an acknowledged master of his instrument, with many awards for his playing. He is known for his love of Bach but, on this occasion, his concert did not include any of Bach's music, opening instead with Antonio Lauro's Three Venezuelan Waltzes, then Waltzes, Opus 8 numbers 3 and 4, by Paraguayan guitarist and composer, Augustín Barrios.
He then turned to Cuban composer, Leo Brouwer, for two major works, his Suite II and then Sonata del Pensador, which the composer dedicated to Gallén and that explores the full range of possibilities of which the Guitar is capable. This was a sensational display piece for Gallén who then returned to Barrios for La Catedral to close his part of the programme.
This was a marvellous start to the 2016 Festival, boding well for the remainder of the extended weekend.
