Another “Viennese Pivot” from the Assads

Odair and Sérgio Assad (from their San Francisco Performances event page)

Readers may recall that, on Friday night, Herbst Theatre provided the venue for the Viennese Pivot program presented by the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra. The idea behind the program was to experience the changes in music-making practices that unfolded during the transition from the end of the eighteenth century into the beginning of the nineteenth. That idea was warranted through a chronological examination of compositions by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven, and Franz Schubert.

Less that 24 hours later, Herbst Theatre presented a program that began with music by another significant composer from that “pivotal” period. The program was the latest guitar recital to be hosted jointly by San Francisco Performances and the Omni Foundation for the Performing Arts. The performers were the duo of Brazilian-born brothers Sérgio and Odair Assad; and they chose to begin their program with the Opus 130 set of “concert variations” composed by Mauro Giuliani.

Giuliani was born in southern Italy; but, at the age of 25, he settled in Vienna in 1806 (the year in which Beethoven’s Opus 61 violin concerto, presented on Friday night, was first performed). He was soon rubbing shoulders with not only Beethoven but also other major “pivotal” figures of the day, including Mozart’s former pupil Johann Nepomuk Hummel, Mozart’s distant cousin (by marriage) Carl Maria von Weber, and composer-publisher Anton Diabelli. While his primary instrument was guitar, Giuliani also played cello and made a “guest appearance” in the orchestra that gave the first performance of Beethoven’s Opus 92 (seventh) symphony in A major.

Regardless of all of these associations, Opus 130 is definitely “pivotal” in its own right. Giuliani’s introduction to the theme on which the variations are based is on that same extended scale that we encounter at the opening of Beethoven’s Opus 92, leaving the less patient listeners wondering if the variations will ever have a theme! Nevertheless, the theme makes a clear appearance; and the variations that follow play out a rich diversity of virtuoso techniques that definitely hold their own among Giuliani’s Viennese contemporaries.

The grand opening to last night’s recital was then followed by a rich diversity of selections ranging from the close of the nineteenth century to the almost immediate present. The pieces that were not explicitly written for two guitars were arrangements, primarily by Sergio. The only arranged selection not attributed to Sergio involve two solo piano compositions by Isaac Albéniz. Those arrangements provided a generous nod to not only Albéniz’ distinctively Spanish themes but also the pianistic devices he summoned to embellish those themes.

For the most part, the remainder of the program was a journey of discovery involving familiar names associated with less familiar compositions. For example, Joaquín Rodrigo was represented by “Tonadilla,” composed in 1959 and first performed by the duo of Ida Presti and Alexandre Lagoya. Strictly speaking, a tonadilla is a particular form of musical comedy; but Rodrigo’s composition is basically a three-movement sonata, admittedly with more than a few satirical gestures injected.

In a more serious vein, the Assads played a four-movement suite of music that Antônio Carlos Jobim composed for the film Crônica da casa assassinada (chronicle of the murdered house). Astor Piazzolla was represented by Sergio’s arrangement of two movements from Suite Troileana, originally composed for his own quintet and named for his mentor in writing tango music, Aníbal Trolio. The program concluded with Sergio’s own three-movement Suite Brasileira.

After the “classical seriousness” of Giuliani and Albéniz, the program proceeded in a relatively casual and relaxed manner. However, there was never anything casual about the guitar technique presented up on the Herbst stage. This was the seventh appearance of the Assad brothers; and, since their first recital in 1992, they have consistently explored the diversity of the guitar repertoire with a foundation of solid technical discipline and an always inventive approach to expressiveness. Last night was a delightful reminder that they are still going strong.