Pro Arte Guitar Trio
Scenes From Childhood Pro Arte Guitar Trio ASV digital CD WHL 2129 Claude Debussy Children's Corner (arr. Peter Rueffer/Richard Hand) 1 Doctor Gradus ad Parnassum 2 Jimbo's Lullaby 3 Serenade of the Doll 4 The Snow is Dancing 5 The Little Shepherd 6 Golliwog's Cake-walk Robert Schumann Scenes from Childhood (Kinderszenen) Op 15. (arr. Richard Hand) 7 Of Foreign Lands and People 8 A Strange Story 9 Catch-as-catch-can 10 Pleading Child 11 Happy Enough 12 An Important Event 13 Dreaming (Traumerei) 14 By the Fire-side 15 Knight of the Hobby-horse 16 Almost Too Serious 17 Frightening 18 Child Falling Asleep 19 The Poet Speaks Georges Bizet Children's Games (Suite from 'Jeux d'enfants') Op 22. (arr. Richard Hand /Peter Reuffer) 20 The Top (Impromptu) 21 The Doll (Berceuse) 22 The Shuttlecock (Fantasie) 23 Soap Bubbles (Rondino) 24 Puss in the corner (Esquisse) 25 Blindman's Bull (Nocturne) 26 Leapfrog (Caprice) 27 Little Husband, Little Wife (Duo) 28 The Ball (Gallop) Maurice Ravel Mother Goose (Ma Mere l'oye) (arr. Peter Reuffer) 29 Pavane for the sleeping beauty 30 Tom Thumb 31 Laideronnette, Empress of the China Dolls 32 Conversations of Beauty and the Beast 33 The Fairy Garden Richard Hand - requinto guitar Tom Dupre - guitar Peter Reuffer - eight string and octave bass guitars Recorded in Weston Parish Church, Hertfordshire (tracks 1-6 & 29-33) on 10 July 2000, and in Toddington Parish Church, Gloucestershire (tracks 7-28) on 2/3 November 2000. ASV WHL 2129 [61'55"] The concept of the guitar trio has been around for quite some time, but the Pro Arte Guitar Trio differ in not using merely three standard guitars but in basing their ensemble around a regular formation of requinto (a small guitar tuned a forth higher), standard and eight string guitars. This gives a much wider range of pitch and colour and more forceful balance between a powerful bass and a bright upper voice, while loosing none of the flexibility of sonority that is such a feature of good guitar playing. The works on this disc are all well known as piano solos or in orchestral versions but all lend themselves surprisingly well to the arranger's pen. The arrangers in this case are two members of the trio and their intimate knowledge of the possibilities of their particular disposition is apparent in the skill of the arrangements. There is nothing in this disc that would necessarily set the listener on aural fire, and indeed their are several patches of decidedly uncomfortable unison intonation that should not have made it past the ear of a conscientious producer. On the other hand, tracks like the last movement of Bizet's 'Jeux d'enfant' with the octave guitar plugging along the bass line, or the vigourous 'thunking' of rhythmic unisons in 'Laideronette' from Mother Goose are simply delightful and effective. The trio play rhythmically as a single entity and not only is the fast playing crisp and exciting, but there is much of beauty in the melodic shaping of slow phrases too. Indeed, the Schumann 'Kinderszenen', such quintessentially domestic piano music, provides numerous opportunities for some real beauty. As a disc of arrangements, one would normally expect to be able to point to several tracks where the idea was good, but the end result was less happy, but generally these arrangements are produced with such skill that the listener unfamiliar with the genesis of these pieces could be forgiven for not recognising this as the original format. A fascinating disc of clever arranging, and fine playing marred only by those careless flaws in tuning. Peter WellsBack to top Bookmark:
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