{"id":10292,"date":"2018-07-05T16:28:46","date_gmt":"2018-07-05T23:28:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/?p=10292"},"modified":"2018-07-29T21:03:13","modified_gmt":"2018-07-30T04:03:13","slug":"album-releases-apostolos-paraskevas-nicolas-guay-and-the-niehausmann-gitarren-duo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/album-releases-apostolos-paraskevas-nicolas-guay-and-the-niehausmann-gitarren-duo\/","title":{"rendered":"Album releases: Apostolos Paraskevas, Nicolas Guay, and the Niehusmann Gitarren Duo"},"content":{"rendered":"

Many weeks we take a peek at recent albums or sheet music releases. Here are three of the CDs that have come into the\u00a0Classical Guitar<\/em>\u00a0office recently.<\/p>\n

If you have a CD you\u2019d like to submit to us, here\u2019s our address:<\/p>\n

Classical Guitar
\n501 Canal Blvd. suite J
\nRichmond, CA 94804-3505<\/p>\n

Some of the albums we talk about online will be reviewed in the magazine, some not. But we want to at least mention most of them here. You can listen to some of these on various of streaming services, but we always encourage you to support the artists by actually\u00a0buying<\/em>\u00a0anything you like! Obviously we cannot research and report every outlet or online business where these albums are sold, so check your favorite places that sell CDs and downloads!<\/p>\n

To see our previous listings, scroll to the bottom of the page.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em>\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u2014Blair Jackson<\/em><\/p>\n

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\nPhoenix<\/em><\/strong>
\nApostolos Paraskevas<\/strong>
\nSilver Sickle Productions<\/p>\n

This album marks the triumphant return to recording of the highly accomplished Greek guitarist and composer Apostolos Paraskevas, whose playing career was abruptly curtailed nine years ago with the onset of crippling focal dystonia in his right hand. It took him more than four years and 7,000 hours of work\u00a0 to fully recover his skills, so it’s wonderful to be able to report that he sounds fantastic on this appropriately titled “comeback” album, which mixes three popular cornerstones of the classical guitar repertoire (by Alb\u00e9niz, Barrios, and Lauro; all nicely played, if not quite revelatory) with four Paraskevas works, two of them multi-movement pieces.<\/p>\n

With the exception of the first movement of\u00a0 Mountains of Stowe<\/em>\u2014which manages to feel like a combination of Baroque and American steel-string-folk styles\u2014I find much of Paraskevas’ writing here to be somewhat dark and forbidding. It’s not just the at times jarring mix of time signatures, dissonant bursts, and unusual harmonies. It’s the ominous pervasive feeling of unease it transmits (to me, anyway), most clearly exemplified in the section “A Visit to the Playground” from Scenes from the Life of Death<\/em>, which plays off a children’s nursery rhyme to sinister effect. Barrios’ radiant Una Limosna por el Amor de Dios<\/em> comes as a welcome relief after Life of Death<\/em>, just as Asturias<\/em> is a psychic life raft after Paraskevas’ disturbing Escape<\/em>. So, the sequencing is intelligent and effective, the writing adventurous and modern, and he plays a really nice-sounding 1957 Hauser throughout. Overall, though, much of this is just not to my personal taste. Still, it’s worth checking out, for sure.<\/p>\n

(Incidentally, Paraskevas’ inspiring article called “A Classical Guitarist’s Story of Recovery from Focal Dystonia” was published in the August and September 2013 issues of Classical Guitar<\/em>. It was very helpful when we were planning our Special Focus section on “Injury and Recovery” in the Spring 2017 issue.)<\/p>\n

Mountains of Stowe: I Stand Strong, And the Sky is the Limit<\/em> (Paraskevas); Julia Florida<\/em> (Barrios); Escape<\/em> (Paraskevas); Asturias<\/em> (Alb\u00e9niz); Scenes from the Life of Death: Awakening of Mournful Feelings…, A Visit to the Playground, Sad and Ungrateful Feelings…<\/em>\u00a0(Paraskevas); Una Limosna por el Amor de Dios<\/em> (Barrios); Dream Not of Today<\/em>\u00a0(Paraskevas); Valse Criollo<\/em> (Lauro)<\/p>\n

The Phoenix<\/em> album can be previewed and\/or streamed and purchased through\u00a0CD Baby<\/a>, Amazon<\/a>, and iTunes\/ Apple Music<\/a>, and streamed on Spotify<\/a> and YouTube<\/a>, where there are excellent videos for every song (like the one below).<\/p>\n