300 Years of Guitar Masterpieces
Manuel Barrueco
Manuel Barrueco is one of the finest classical guitarists active today. Although 300 Years Of Guitar Masterpieces is not a new collection its breadth makes it an excellent introduction to the playing of this extraordinary guitarist.
Since this 3-CD set contains 49 tracks, I will not review it by track but rather by composer, since Mr. Barrueco's playing is remarkably consistent within a given genre.
Mr. Barrueco has a great sense of touch which allows him to bring a vast array of subtle colourings to his repertoire. In his recording of the Villa-Lobos Etudes you can hear the fine shading that shapes his interpretations, brilliantly underscoring the composer's own architecture. Villa-Lobos structured each of these studies intricately, and it is great to hear a performer who grasps the whole as well as the details. If there is any problem here, it might be that he makes them sound too easy!
Manuel Barrueco's performance of Paganini's violin sonatas display an easy virtuosity that belies the difficulty of the pieces. This is particularly evident in his recording of the E minor sonata (op. 3 no. 6) where a singing melody will suddenly burst forth into a torrent of notes at blinding speed, tossed off as if it were the simplest scale. Paganini was the prototype of the musical "superstar" and he added to his own legend with his compositions. With a virtuoso of the calibre of Mr. Barrueco they are eminently suited to the guitar.
The grace and style of the Paganini is also evident in Mr. Barrueco's wonderful versions of Scarlatti sonatas. So natural is his playing that these works sound as if written for the guitar originally. Scarlatti was a master of the keyboard but his sonatas have been favourites of guitarists, and these interpretations are some of the finest on record.
A similar sense of grace is brought to the music of Domenico Cimarosa, a composer who was born a few years before Scarlatti's death. In his sonatas you can hear the early classical style with textures that would not be out of place on the harpsichord, a colouring that Mr. Barrueco gives to them with great effect.
The Italian guitarist and composer Mauro Giuliani led an interesting life, at one point living in Vienna and a friend of Beethoven. Giuliani left us some of the finest early music written expressly for guitar and Mr. Barrueco plays two of his best compositions with elegance.
The combination of lyricism, tone colour, and flawless technique reach their pinnacle in Manuel Barrueco's magnificent performances of Bach. Each voice stands out from the others, and each receives its appropriate emphasis on entering the polyphonic textures. It is a particular joy to listen to the fugue in the A minor suite where each of the entries is given a unique tone colour. As in all of his Bach playing, Mr. Barrueco's technique is so virtuosic as to be invisible, allowing complete concentration on the music - the perfect way to enjoy Bach.
Spanish-Catalan composer Enrique Granados wrote a great many piano works, several of which have been successfully transcribed for guitar. The five Spanish Dances on this recording are excellent examples of the composer's style, brilliantly performed.
Carlos Chávez was probably the most important composer in Mexico during the 20th century. His Three Pieces for Guitar were written in 1923, and they show the various influences that were in the air at the time. Alternately stringent and melodious, they can be a challenge to grasp as well as to perform. Fortunately Mr. Barrueco is a highly sympathetic artist, and his performance of these pieces can well be regarded as definitive.
Mozart Camargo Guarnieri was a Brazilian composer whose life spanned most of the 20th century. (He wisely dropped the use of his first name when he settled on a career in music!) His study here shows that etude writing in Brazil continued in the fine tradition established by Villa-Lobos.
Having taken this guitaristic time travel through the repertoire with Manuel Barrueco, we can appreciate both his virtuoso technique and his wonderful sensitivity to each era and its music. Any lover of the guitar will want to experience his live performance, and to retain that enjoyment with several of his recordings.
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