GREENSBORO – The Texas Guitar Quartet was definitely something different as a chamber music group in the second concert of the Summer Music from Greensboro season, held July 16 at the Greensboro United Church of Christ. The quartet played a variety of well-conceived transcriptions of familiar classical works, mostly scored by the musicians themselves, who consisted of Isaac Bustos, Joseph Palmer, Jay Kacherski and Alejandro Montiel.
The Texas Guitar Quartet was founded in 2008 and has performed to acclaim around this country and internationally.
The guitar has long been one of the most important instruments in Spanish music, and during the 19th and early 20th centuries, Spain had a certain exotic attraction for many European composers.
The first four selections on the program illustrated this, with pieces by Rossini, Bizet, Ravel and Debussy, that celebrate the vibrant rhythms which have their origins in older Moorish and Gypsy traditions.
The “Barber of Seville Overture” by Gioachino Rossini (1792-1868) had a sequence of beautiful melodies from the opera which prepares the audience for the subsequent ambience of this comic masterpiece.
“Alborada del Gracioso” by Maurice Ravel (1875-1937) from Miroirs, contained two high energy dances whose subject was the morning songs of a throng of circus clowns. One of the guitarists added drama and reinforced the beat by hitting the side of his guitar with the flat of his hand.
The “Carmen Suite” by Georges Bizet (1838-1875) highlighted the powerful arias from this tragic opera of obsessive love, with their intense Spanish character. By contrast, the “Reverie” of Claude Debussy (1862-1918) had a laid back tempo of a rather dream-like state with exquisite melodies, more like an Impressionist painting of gliding down a river in a boat on a summer’s afternoon. All these works were played with excellent coordination among the four musicians, combining technical accuracy with a depth of feeling.
The “Tocata en Salsa” by Aureo Puerto Carreno, a contemporary composer, was written especially for the Texas Guitar Quartet to showcase their virtuosity in skillfully playing off one another. In geometric patterns, the piece had rich textures in the juxtaposition of more distinct parts. The “Intermezzo” of Manuel Maria Ponce (1882-1948) was originally written for piano, with a finely developed theme, short but resonating.
The final piece was the “Egmont Overture, Op84,” by Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1829), whose subject was the fate of the hero Count Egmont, who fought against the sadistic Spanish invasion of the Netherlands. The mood shifts from darker tragedy to final triumph in the music, which parallels events in Beethoven’s own personal life at the time.
After receiving a standing ovation, the quartet gave an encore by a Spanish guitarist and composer, Geronimo Jimenez, with two lively tunes.
The next concert in the Summer Music from Greensboro series will feature the Bob and Sara Amos Band, playing bluegrass music on July 30, at 7:30 p.m. For more information go to
David K. Rodgers
David K. Rodgers is a writer, mason and card carrying dilettante, who dabbles and babbles in art. He has lived in East Craftsbury for the past 40 years.
