Guitarist Marc Teicholz (from the Conservatory Web page for last night’s performance)
Yesterday evening I decided to check out the latest performance livestreamed from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. This was a Faculty Artist Series recital, the faculty member being guitarist Marc Teicholz. He shared the performance with pianist Eric Zivian.
Note that I did not used the verb “accompanied.” This was a program in which both Teicholz and Zivian gave solo performances. The music performed involved a coupling of Frédéric Chopin’s Opus 28 collection of 24 solo piano preludes accounting for all the major and minor keys with a similar collection composed by Sergio Assad for solo guitar entitled 24 Preludios Chopinianos. Zivian would play each of the preludes, and Teicholz would then play the Assad prelude in the same key. Assad’s account of the eighth of the preludes in F-sharp minor (Molto agitato) was basically a transcription of Chopin, while the other selections were more inventive, reflecting the mood rather than the exact notes.
It has been a while since I last found myself confronting what I had previously called “the flood of physical mannerisms that Zivian exhibits, presumably to convey his personal attachment to the music he is playing.” Sadly, yesterday evening those mannerisms were as abundant as ever. The good news was that Teicholz delivered guitar performances that were as engaging as they were disciplined. (The same can be said of Assad’s talents as a composer.)
The intermission took place at the halfway mark, following the first twelve couplings of preludes by the two composers. By that time I had had enough. There is only so much Zivian I can endure over the course of any recital program.
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