Guitar wizardry by noted guitarist Leo Witoszynskyj

By Gus Kairupan

JAKARTA (JP): Do you know how many puffs it takes to finish a cigarette? Not more than thirteen. Or so Narciso Yepes says. It goes without saying that before coming to that conclusion, senor Yepes must've closely watched an awful lot of puffers.

It isn't known where, when and how he carried out the research. And when did he find time to do it, because -- as many of you probably know -- Narciso Yepes is the kind of top guitarist who would be booked several years in advance.

Anyway, the story comes from Leo Witoszynskyj, himself a world-class guitarist, who studied with Yepes and is also a friend of the Spanish master.

Another tale concerns the late Andres Segovia. Yes, Witoszynskyj studied with him too, and remembers the first time he appeared before Segovia and was asked to play some music that included a menuet, an Austrian dance. Half-way through the piece he was ordered to stop and told to play a certain part in a certain way.

"In a split second I had to make up my mind about how to react to Segovia's suggestion. Who is this guy from Spain trying to tell an Austrian how to play a menuet!" But when you, a budding guitarist, face someone as great as Andres Segovia, you submit to his instructions. It certainly hasn't done Witoszynskyj any harm, and learning at the feet of two of the greatest guitarists of this century has turned him into just as excellent an exponent of Spanish music for guitar.

Segovia, Yepes and Luise Walker, a prominent female guitarist who was his first teacher and, at the age of 84, is still actively performing -- except when the World Cup soccer competition was in progress.

"We were having dinner together, and all through the meal she kept fidgeting. She admitted later on that she didn't want to miss the World Cup finals, so right afterwards we raced home."

A good and entertaining raconteur is Witoszynskyj, besides, of course, being one of the greats among today's guitarists. Which is what he came to Indonesia for -- to give a recital. Last Saturday's performance, held under the auspices of the Austrian Embassy, the YPM School of Music and the Chopin Society, was his fifth in this country. That is quite a number of visits by any musician. But then, Witoszynskyj said that he "feels inspired" when he plays in Indonesia. "It's the social culture of Indonesia which I find inspiring." It would also have been inspiring for the guitar students who took part in the master class held at the YPM School of Music on the following day.

The recital took place in the auditorium on the top floor of Widjojo Center On Jl. Sudirman, South Jakarta, which is very suitable for such performances as solo guitar music works best in a small and intimate place. The program included compositions by J.S. Bach, Mauro Giuliani, Joaquin Turina, Luise Walker (his teacher), Wolfgang Muthspiel (his student), Francisco Tarrega and Manuel De Falla.

Anyone in the audience would have been forgiven for thinking "oh, no!" on seeing Tarrega's Recuerdos de la Alhambra on the program. The piece is blared at you in elevators, restaurants, shopping plazas to the point you'd gladly smash the audio equipment playing it. But of course there are right ways and awfully wrong ways of presenting a piece of music, and what you hear in public places definitely belong in the latter category. Recuerdos is in fact a hauntingly beautiful piece of music as long as it is played by someone like Leo Witoszynskyj.

Equally, if not more, attractive were the Three Chords by Witoszynskyj's pupil Wolfgang Muthspiel, 29 years old, and already a composer of note at least in his native country, Austria. Witoszynskyj said that he heard Muthspiel play it, and straight away he asked for the music. Muthspiel, Witoszybskyj said, is also a jazz musician, which explains the elements of jazz in the three short pieces, the second of which was dedicated to Witoszynskyj.

Bach's Chaconne was another piece I was looking forward to, not because it's unknown to me, but because I have never heard a version of it for guitar. Originally part of a suite for unaccompanied violin, the Chaconne has been arranged for piano, among others by Ferrucio Busoni and it is this version we hear most often. The program did not say who arranged it for guitar, but it is an excellent arrangement, one in which the many different voices and melodic lines stand out even more clearly than in the version for piano.

Noticing that he performed music composed by his teacher and one of his students, I asked whether he composes himself, and if so, why he didn't play his own works. "I've written a bit of music, yes, but I really don't think they're all that good. Besides, I think I'm better as a performer than as a composer."

Not one in the audience disagreed with that.