Goethe guitarist gets standing ovation

Goethe guitarist gets standing ovation

Jim Read, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Lovers of fine music faced a cruel dilemma on Sunday evening:
whether to opt for the oleaginous, Mediterranean charms, at Balai
Kartini, of up-and-coming Italian tenor Patrizio Buanne (see
adjacent article) or the exquisite musicianship of Uruguayan-born
guitar maestro Alvaro Pierri at Goethe Haus, Central Jakarta.

Those choosing the latter need not have worried; Pierri
delivered a superb performance to a highly appreciative audience,
many of whom were classical guitarists themselves. His amusing,
introductory vignettes of program items quickly won over the
crowd and whetted their musical appetites.

The somewhat dry acoustic of the Goethe Haus auditorium was
perfect for the recital. The air-conditioning, turned off at the
soloist's request, allowed even the quietest passages to be heard
with a clarity that is rare indeed.

The downside was that the heat and humidity were palpable by
the end of each of the concert's two halves, but most in the
audience would have agreed that it was well worth the discomfort
that entailed.

Playing without a trademark guitarist's footstool (as is his
wont), Pierri opened the recital with four pieces by rarely heard
Polish composer Jakub Pollack (1545-1605). As his dates might
suggest, the works were very reminiscent of lute music by John
Dowland, replete with the engaging plaintiveness of that period.

It turned out that the first group of pieces were a good way
of preparing both soloist and audience for the exhilaration that
was to come.

Gran Sonata en La Mayor by Niccolo Paganini was written
originally for the guitar, even though there were many moments in
the first movement when one could have been forgiven for thinking
that this was a transcription of a Haydn or Mozart piano sonata.

The second movement encapsulated the quintessential lyricism
of the guitar, while the last started innocuously enough, with a
perky tune that seemed somewhat inconsequential.

This turned out to be something of a Paganini "joke", for the
initial theme became a series of increasingly complex variations,
with fiendishly difficult scale passages played above a slow
tenor/baritone restatement of the original theme.

Pierri took all of this in his stride, especially the piano --
even pianissimo -- harmonics that typified the impishness of the
piece.

Pierri was born in Montevideo, Uruguay, to a family of
musicians. Taking guitar lessons by the age of five, he won his
first award at the age of 11 and went on to win just about every
prize offered to young musicians in Uruguay and abroad.

His U.S. debut took place in New York in 1978; soon after, he
was being talked about in the same breath as guitar greats Andres
Segovia, Julian Bream and John Williams.

He is also an internationally acclaimed teacher. Since 2002,
Pierri has been a guitar professor at Universitaet fuer Musik und
Darstellende Kunst in Vienna, Austria.

The second half of the recital comprised more modern works, by
Eduardo Sainz de la Maza, Astor Piazzolla and Alberto Ginastera.
The pieces were played with great aplomb, often incorporating
unconventional, percussive sound effects that involved tapping or
beating the body of the guitar, sliding along the strings or
plucking them in extremely unusual places.

By the time Pierri was presented with the customary bouquet,
it was clear that this audience would not be content with polite
applause; it was not going to let him go before it had heard an
encore or two, its half-speed handclap growing into a crescendo
of deafening approval.

He performed two delightful cameos, moving almost seamlessly
from one to the other. Despite a standing ovation from almost
everyone present he did not return to the platform this time.

Speaking after the recital, Pierri said how impressed he was
at the students who had attended a master class he had given the
day before. "They brought such a wide variety of pieces with
them, making the class a real pleasure for me," he said.

The concert was the first in a series of three, billed The
Guitar Maestros. Dates that aficionados of the instrument should
note in their diaries are Dec. 1, when Aniello Desiderio will
play at Erasmus Huis, and Jan. 29, 2006, when the Juan Martin
trio will deliver what should be an exciting evening of flamenco
music.