Guitar concert charms music fans

JAKARTA (JP): So ubiquitous is the guitar that it can even be seen in great numbers in Jakarta's streets. But not a guitar concert. Hence, when six Jakartan guitarists staged a concert here on Sunday July 29, it was a welcome treat.

The concert at the Textile Museum on Jl. K.S. Tubun, West Jakarta, charmed an audience of 80 people with excellent classical pieces as well as pop songs played in a classical style.

Rudi Hamid and Jubing Kristianto opened the concert with a piece by Lee Ritenour, Rainbow, followed by Meilisa Husein playing Vals Venezolano No. 2, composed by A. Lauro, and F. Sor's Gran Solo.

Meilisa, 16, was the youngest guitarist and the only high school student in the group. Rudi, a winner of the Yamaha Indonesian Guitar Festival in the 1980s, is an employee of a music distribution company, while Jubing, an editor with weekly women's tabloid Nova, was also a winner of the same festival several times.

In this concert, Jubing transformed the simple Indonesian children's song Naik Delman (Riding a Horse-drawn Cart), composed by Pak Kasur, into a lively guitar piece laden with attractive improvisation. Another piece he played was Theme from Mission Impossible by L. Schriffin. He played both the pieces with great ease.

Graceful pieces by Villa Lobos were among the works played by Iwan Susanto, Prelude No. 5, and Erfan Suryobuwono, Prelude No. 2 and Choros No. 1. Iwan, a finalist at the Yamaha guitar festival in 1998, is a salesman at a chemical trading company. Erfan is a salesman for a firm selling heavy equipment.

The beautiful spread of batik at the rear of the stage provided an artistic backdrop to the guitar music.

Daniel Tjahja, a tour leader and computer trader, presented, among others, Waltz Op. 8 No. 4 by Barrios and the Sevilla by Isaac Albeniz. Daniel, who won the Yamaha guitar festival in 1990 and 1998, played pieces which were among the most difficult in the concert.

"This is a reflection of our love for the instrument and we wish to share the beauty of its music with the public," said Jubing, who acted as the spokesperson for the group.

He said he planned to hold other concerts in the future, hopefully regularly, to satisfy Jakarta audiences' thirst for guitar music.

The concert was even more unique because the hall was rented by the guitarists and they offered free entrance to the public.

Understandably, some of the players had stage fright and were sometimes technically inadequate or the sound of the guitar was reduced to a whisper because of it being such a fiendishly difficult instrument to play. Professionals need hours of practice every day, which is a luxury for someone in another profession.

"Tour leading takes time, I have barely had enough time to practice," Daniel said.

Technical agility aside, their dedication to the music has brightened a Sunday morning in the city. (hbk)