Antigoni Goni
Antigoni Goni
Laureate Series, Guitar
Naxos 1997
For those who like to listen to classical guitar music, this is a first rate recording. Goni manages the vital issue of repertoire well. She has work by five modern composers. And her playing is dazzling without being flashy – superb phrasing, gorgeous tone.
Carlo Domeniconi’s Koyunbaba suite is pretty hypnotic. Its Turkish influence is evident throughout. I was unfamiliar with this Italian composer, and would like to hear more of his work.
Spanish composer Joaquin Rodrigo is famous for his Concierto de Aranjuez, and his Invocacion y Danza from Hommage a Manuel de Falla has much as of the same feel as the concierto.
Federico Mompou has been spoken of as the Spanish Satie in relation to his piano music, not inaccurately, since he was very much influenced by the French composer. Mompou’s piano music is even more minimalist than Satie’s, and very meditative. There’s an excellent 1993 ECM recording by Herbert Henck of his Música Callada Book 1-4. His Suite compostelana on this CD is similar to his piano music, very compressed and subtle.
I was very glad that Goni included Agustín Barrios Mangoré’s Un sueno en la floresta. This virtuoso guitarist and wonderful composer was a contemporary of Segovia, and he is reputed to have made the first ever recording of classical guitar music. Barrios was greatly influenced by the folk music of his native Paraguay. Un sueno en la floresta is, “…a spell-binding exercise in tremolo, utterly idiomatic to the guitar, as are all of Barrios’ works.” The Naxos liner notes say it much more precisely than I could. Barrios was a poet, also. Viva Barrios!
The widely admired Cuban composer Leo Brouwer is known for using indeterminacy as part of his compositional methodology, and his El decamerón negro does have a kind of edgy feel to it. Brouwer's influences include Messiaen, Bartok, Shostakovich, and Stravinsky. Like a good amount of the music on this disc, El decamerón negro suite is kind of brooding. No speedmetal here, sweetheart, but plenty of intensity.
My Guitar
There is a deep mystery in your sonorous
Garden heart, guitar of mine,
You enjoy suffering, and in your joy
Ecstasies of passion, teardrops of crying.
The sweet Moor gave you your heart,
The Iberian gave you your untamed soul
And Virgin America, you might say,
Put in you, because of its love, all the treasure.
And so on your supreme strings
That vibrate with an almost human accent
There is, at times, your voice, like a lament.
As a sigh from your lonely heart
In whose sad and mystical plan
Sentiment forever flourishes.
Agustin Barrios Mangoré
Neighborhood
Explore friends, family, friends & family, or entire neighborhood.
