Two Guitarists – Two Genres

Last night at St. Mark’s Lutheran Church both San Francisco Performances and the Omni Foundation for the Performing Arts wrapped up their respective fall seasons with a “two for the price of one” guitar program. The intermission separated performances by two guitarists, each specializing in a different Spanish style. The first of them was Andrea González Caballero, who performed selections from the classical repertoire. She was followed by Grisha Goryachev, who led the audience on a journey through the flamenco repertoire.

I should confess at the outset that my knowledge of flamenco is minimal, particular when compared with the classical genre. The only familiar composer name was Sabicas, only because I am pretty sure I saw him on television back in my high school days. Where the music was concerned, I was (of course) familiar with the theme of Ernesto Lecuona’s “Malagueña” as a piano composition; but I was not prepared for the flamenco take on the themes by Paco de Lucía. De Lucía dominated Goryachev’s portion of the program, including the encore; and I definitely appreciated the opportunity to make acquaintance with his inventive style. Nevertheless, my listening skills will need more input before I feel comfortable trying to address flamenco performances.

On the other hand I have had a generous share of listening experiences where the classical repertoire is involved, much of which was initially informed through a generous amount of listening to recordings made by Andrés Segovia. Indeed it was the Segovia recording of eight of the movements from the Castillos de España (castles of Spain) collection composed by Federica Moreno Torroba that prepared me for Caballero’s performance of three of those movements: “Torija,” “Manzanares el Real,” and “Montemayor” (given the subtitle “Romance de los Pinos”).

For the most part, however, Caballero’s offerings provided me with an engaging journey of discovery. She interleaved two preludes by Francisco Tárrega between three short pieces by Regino Sainz de la Maza, which served as prologue to the Castillos de España excerpts. However, close familiarity only emerged at the end of her set with two arrangements of familiar music by Manuel de Falla. The arrangement of the Miller’s dance from “The Three-Cornered Hat” is probably one of the most familiar encores in the classical guitar repertoire. The dance music that begins the second act of La vida breve (life is short) is also familiar, but is probably better known as an encore in Fritz Kreisler’s arrangement for violin and piano.

Taken as a whole, last night’s offering provided just the right combination of discovery and familiarity, which is the best we can expect from any concert or recital!