David Russell Returns to SFP After 14 Visits

David Russell with his guitar (courtesy of SFP)

Guitarist David Russell has been bringing solo guitar recitals to San Francisco Performances (SFP) since March of 1993. Most, if not all, of these events have been presented in association with the Omni Foundation for the Performing Arts, which annually prepares a more extended recital series focusing primarily on guitars. Last night he returned to San Francisco to perform at St. Mark’s Lutheran Church.

It would be fair to call last night a “past and present” program. The past was represented by Johann Sebastian Bach, Mauro Giuliani, and Isaac Albéniz. The living composers were Stephen Goss and Gabriel Estarellas. Bach and Albéniz were the two composers that were not guitarists, and the five Albéniz selections were all transcriptions by Francisco Tárrega. Sadly, Russell was more than a little casual in introducing his Bach selections, describing them only as “pieces I enjoy.”

The major work on the program was the San Francisco premiere of Goss’ Don Quijote suite, which he had dedicated to Russell. This consisted of six movements, which Russell described as alternating between “how the world sees the Don” and “how the Don sees the world.” The performance included projected images, which seem to reflect on the movement titles but did little to establish any sense of narrative over the course of the performance. There was no end of spirit in the text of author Miguel de Cervantes, but Goss never seemed to capture any of this spirit in his score.

This was followed by six movements from the Estarellas suite entitled Homage to Charles Chaplin. Scott Cmiel provided an informative paragraph for the program book accounting for what those movements were intended to depict. Sadly, however, none of those depictions registered with much impact, resulting in an extended one-thing-after-another performance that just got drearier and drearier.

Somewhat more spirited was a take on the “Irish Washerwoman” theme. The first word of the title was “Dirty,” and the second was muttered beyond recognition. However, the attempt to depict scrubbing made this an engaging encounter. Russell then revisited the “Dulcinea” movement from Goss’ suite; but I am afraid that, by that time, I had had more than enough of that composer’s music!