Anton Baranov performing in the Biserica Piaristă church (screenshot from the video being discussed)

The latest OMNI on-Location video, created by the Omni Foundation for the Performing Arts, is now available for viewing. It is a brief (roughly a quarter hour in duration) solo recital by guitarist Anton Baranov performing in the Biserica Piaristă church. The church was built in the town of Cluj-Napoca in Romania and was consecrated in 1724. Those that read the preview article for this screening were shown a photograph of the church’s exterior. As can be seen above, the video presents the interior, which is just as impressive!

As is frequently the case, the program provided me with, for the most part, a journey of discovery. There were four relatively brief selections, the last two of which were composed by Johann Kaspar Mertz. He was active in Vienna at the same time as other major guitar composers, the best-known of whom would be Mauro Giuliani (whose familiarity is due, at least in some part, to Andrés Segovia). The moods of those compositions were, respectively, introspective (“An Malvina”) and lively (“Tarantella”). As “first contact” experiences go, these made for a satisfying introduction.

Those selections were preceded by two arrangements. The first of these was the “Dance of the Blessed Spirits” from Christoph Willibald Gluck’s opera Orfeo ed Euridice, and the arranger was Michael Goldort. I suspect that this music has been arranged for just about any instrumental setting, but this offering was still decidedly engaging. It was followed by Sergey Rudnev’s arrangement of Anatoly Lyadov’s Opus 32, originally a solo piano composition entitled “Muzikalnaya tabakerka” (a musical snuffbox). This was another “first contact” experience; and, through Baranov’s interpretation, it was just as engaging as the Gluck offering.

Hopefully, Baranov will find his way to a North American tour sooner, rather than later; and, just as hopefully, that tour will bring him to San Francisco!