THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, January 28, 1996 TAG: 9601280178
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B4 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Music review
SOURCE: BY PAUL SAYEGH, SPECIAL TO THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
LENGTH: Short : 49 lines
On a night when much of the region's musical attention was focused on Wagnerian grandeur, a very different, more intimate event was occurring at the Virginia Beach Center for the Arts. The Tidewater Classical Guitar Society presented internationally renowned guitarist Manuel Barrueco in a solo recital that was immensely satisfying in its balance of musicianship and virtuosity.
The Cuban-born Barrueco certainly has the latter. On Friday night, there was seemingly little he could not do with the guitar.
Trills, difficult leaps, rapidly repeated notes and busy decorative passages were all executed with ease and grace. The overused and often-abused term ``world-class'' definitely belongs in a description of Barrueco's playing.
There was no showy striving for effect; Barrueco made his musical points in a quiet, unassuming manner that made the recital appear more like a private conversation between the artist and his audience, which was near capacity.
The program was somewhat safe and conservative, but within those parameters, it worked effectively.
Barrueco began with Bach's ``Sonata in G Minor, BWV 1001,'' originally for solo violin. Trills and embellishments were a highlight of the opening movement, while the second-movement fugue benefited from Barrueco's ability to clarify the busy texture and to maintain rhythmic steadiness.
Three Domenico Scarlatti sonatas demonstrated how much of the guitar's sound the composer had incorporated into his keyboard works. Barrueco performed them with verve, but also with a haunting lyricism in the quieter sections.
Selections by the Brazilian Heitor Villa-Lobos and the Paraguayan Agustin Barrios brought the program into the 20th century, although the influence of Bach and Scarlatti was felt in both composers' music.
The high point of the concert was Joaquin Rodrigo's ``Tres Piezas Espanolas.''
The Spanish composer, now in his 90s, combines Baroque and flamenco sounds with mild dissonant 20th-century harmonies in a unique and memorable way, and Barrueco clearly enjoyed playing this work, giving it a colorful and extroverted interpretation.
For an encore, Barrueco performed a charming, neo-Baroque arrangement of the Beatles' ``Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.'' by CNB