{"id":3706,"date":"2016-03-09T10:20:59","date_gmt":"2016-03-09T18:20:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/?p=3706"},"modified":"2018-03-10T14:37:02","modified_gmt":"2018-03-10T22:37:02","slug":"the-importance-of-repertoire-5-classical-guitarists-weigh-in","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/the-importance-of-repertoire-5-classical-guitarists-weigh-in\/","title":{"rendered":"The Importance of Repertoire: 5 Classical Guitarists Weigh In"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Blair Jackson<\/strong><\/p>\n

In the grand scheme of things, nothing is more important for classical-guitar professionals, and those who aspire to grow into the field, than playing with creativity, passion, power, and, of course, a high degree of technical precision and acuity.<\/p>\n

But not to be overlooked or taken lightly is the issue of repertoire. What selection of pieces spanning 15, 30, 45, or more minutes will allow a guitarist to plumb the depths of his or her soul, imbue the material with a combination of confidence and an unmistakable mastery, and thoroughly entertain an audience that might range from master guitarists to people with little or no previous exposure to classical-guitar music?<\/p>\n

The good news is that there has never been a broader range of pieces written and\/or arranged for guitar than there is today\u2014nor an audience as receptive to pieces that fall outside the traditional strictures of so-called \u201cclassical\u201d music. It\u2019s not quite \u201canything goes,\u201d but it\u2019s no longer unusual to find programs that span five centuries of music and include arrangements of contemporary pop or jazz tunes, as well.<\/p>\n

At the school level, guitar pedagogy has traditionally been quite inclusive, with students exposed to the Baroque perfection of Bach and Scarlatti, the great early-19th\u00a0century Italian and Spanish composers, other European Romantics, the instrument\u2019s evolution in Central and South America, and, once that foundation has been laid, some of the more adventurous and idiosyncratic modern figures in guitar music. Along the way, guitarists discover the styles and composers that make their hearts sing, that \u201cspeak\u201d to them, and which they are most comfortable performing. In that way, a program finds the guitarist, and if the stars are aligned, that program will move an audience or, in the case of young guitarists trying to impress judges in a competition, sway critical evaluators. So picking the right pieces to play, whether its money or a competition on the line, is a vital skill every guitarist must develop.<\/p>\n

We recently contacted a handful of guitarists and asked them to weigh in on issues connected to repertoire, including competitions, concerts, or commercial CDs. Participating were regular CG<\/em> writers Derek Hasted<\/strong>, Chris Dumigan<\/strong>, and Steve Marsh<\/strong> (who sent in their comments via e-mail from England), and US-based guitarists Christopher Mallett<\/strong> and Yuri Liberzon<\/strong>, whom I interviewed by phone.\b<\/p>\n

\n

\"Yuri<\/h3>\n

Yuri Liberzon<\/h3>\n

Russian-born Yuri Liberzon studied guitar at the Yale School of Music and Johns Hopkins\u2019 Peabody Conservatory, where Manuel Barrueco was a principal teacher. He recently released his first solo guitar CD, <\/em>Ascension, which has works that run the gamut from Bach and Scarlatti to the Beatles and jazz pianist Keith Jarrett.<\/em><\/p>\n

I never thought of a \u201ccorrect\u201d order of how to learn things. But I wanted to challenge myself consistently, so I chose pieces that would let me try all time periods and also touch on the major composers. In general, I never wanted to play music that everybody else played, except for some of the masterpieces, like Bach\u2019s \u201cChaconne\u201d or some of the well-known pieces by Scarlatti, Piazzolla, Leo Brouwer, those types of composers. I was very selective.<\/p>\n

Especially these days, you want to stand out, and one way to do that is to play something unique or different, whether it\u2019s a piece that\u2019s written specifically for you or it\u2019s a modern piece. However, I don\u2019t want it to be too \u201cmodern,\u201d if that means it\u2019s inaccessible to general audiences. It has to be something people can relate to. I just commissioned a piece from Konstantin Vassiliev, who is from the same town I\u2019m from in Russia, and it starts off very tonally and relatable\u2014it\u2019s based on a folk melody\u2014but then he goes and explores some atonal and kind of avant-garde sounds, before he goes back to the melody you can relate to.<\/p>\n

For my CD, I decided to choose pieces from my live concert program. I\u2019ve changed it a bit since then; I edited some pieces and took out some. But what I like about this program is its variety. Not that many people have done the whole Bach Partita<\/em> [No. 2 in D minor<\/em> for solo violin]. Of course the \u201cChaconne\u201d is the popular piece from that, but it\u2019s the fifth\u2014and last\u2014movement, and I think the whole thing is one of the greatest pieces of music I know of, and the \u201cChaconne\u201d should be heard in context of the whole piece.<\/p>\n

But I\u2019m also playing the Beatles, I\u2019m playing Keith Jarrett, so it\u2019s not just what people call \u201cclassical music\u201d anymore. Audiences like variety and they also like things that are familiar to them. I used to play the Beatles toward the end, and I usually start with some Baroque music\u2014Scarlatti or Bach. It\u2019s much more difficult for audiences to sit through a concert of pieces by composers they haven\u2019t heard of before, but it\u2019s still important to have [some of those], along with things people have heard before or relate to. I want to keep playing different styles.<\/p>\n

I would like to learn more concertos. I\u2019m also very interested in arranging music for guitar\u2014things that have not been played on the guitar. I\u2019d like to play \u201cTake Me to Church,\u201d by [Irish singer-songwriter] Hozier. Classical music is going through a change and I think audiences are more open to new things. And I think people want to hear more variety.<\/p>\n

Below, Liberzon plays Manuel Barrueco’s arrangement of a portion of Keith Jarrett’s<\/em> K\u00f6ln Concert:<\/em>
\n