{"id":1427,"date":"2015-04-07T17:27:20","date_gmt":"2015-04-08T00:27:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/?p=1427"},"modified":"2015-04-07T17:28:08","modified_gmt":"2015-04-08T00:28:08","slug":"krystin-omaras-obsession-is-an-impressive-offering-of-new-and-known-pieces","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/krystin-omaras-obsession-is-an-impressive-offering-of-new-and-known-pieces\/","title":{"rendered":"Krystin O\u2019Mara’s ‘Obsession’ is an Impressive Offering of New and Known Pieces"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

It\u2019s always pleasing when an artist creates a favorable first impression by something he or she didn\u2019t do. Having provided two succinct pages of program notes, incorporating a brief introduction to his own work by Viet Cuong (b.1990), Krystin O\u2019Mara then resists all temptation to drone on about herself by politely inviting any interested readers to visit her website. This I did, and was rewarded with the boast-free resum\u00e9 of an enterprising young guitarist who\u2019s clearly going great guns in America, but is little known elsewhere.<\/p>\n

By now, a spirited \u201cZapateado\u201d was emerging from the speakers. As well as establishing O\u2019Mara\u2019s credentials as a player, this agreeable opening choice once again raises the question of why posterity has treated Regino Sainz de al Maza (1896-1981) less generously than his younger brother.<\/p>\n

In addition to his original compositions, several of which were punchy Hispanic miniatures like the \u201cZapateado,\u201d there are those splendid re-workings of Gaspar Sanz, recorded by both Alirio Diaz and Leo Witoszynskyj half a century ago but rarely revisited since.<\/p>\n

After an unusually short break between tracks, O\u2019Mara flips into a darker mode with the poignant initial flourish of Fantasia \u00c9l\u00e9giaque<\/em>. Dramatic throughout, but never excessively so, her handling of this romantically-charged 19th century middleweight reminds us once again that the man who inflicted the Mozart Variations on the world was a far more refined composer than his undeserving greatest hit might suggest. Centered on a forceful two-note ostinato with gentler contrasting episodes, Viet Cuong\u2019s 10:29 minute title track is a rare example of a newly-minted contemporary heavyweight that hits the spot on the first hearing.<\/p>\n

It also presents a challenge in both skill and stamina, to which O\u2019Mara proves more than equal. To place the retro lyricism of \u201cJulia Florida\u201d in its wake emerges as a smart piece of programming\u2014the nostalgic soundscapes of Barrios cleanse the palate in preparation for more than 20 minutes of Ian Krouse (b.1956), who\u2019s probably best know to CG<\/em> readers as a long-standing collaborator with the LAGQ. Drawing his inspiration from The Nightingale<\/em>, The Little Match Girl<\/em> and The Red Shoes<\/em>, Krouse displays all his customary assurance in exploiting the guitar\u2019s resources, although it has to be said that the link between the sound and the stories isn\u2019t always obvious.\u00a0by Paul Fowles<\/em><\/p>\n

Obsession <\/span><\/strong><\/a>
\n<\/span>Regino Sainz de la Maza: \u201cZapateado\u201d; Fernando Sor: Fantasie \u00c9l\u00e9giaque, Op.59. Viet Cuong: \u201cObsession\u201d; Augustin Barrios: \u201cJulia Florida\u201d; Ian Krouse: Trois Tableaux d\u2019Andersen
\nKrystin O\u2019Mara<\/i><\/p>\n

BluePoint Studios CD-231013-2<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s always pleasing when an artist creates a favorable first impression by something he or she didn\u2019t do. Having provided two succinct pages of program notes, incorporating a brief introduction to his own work by Viet Cuong (b.1990), Krystin O\u2019Mara then resists all temptation to drone on about herself by politely inviting any interested readers to visit her website. This I did, and was rewarded with the boast-free resum\u00e9 of an enterprising young guitarist who\u2019s clearly going great guns in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1427","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1427","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1427"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1427\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1427"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1427"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1427"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}