Mystique Works by Tárrega, Albéniz, Mompou and Carlo Domeniconi Krzysztof Meisinger (guitar) Chandos CHAN 20278 72:30 mins
‘The time of the self-deprecating ‘classical’ guitar is over. It is time to see the guitar as it really is: a strong, sonorous instrument with a richness of colour that knows no equal.’ These defiant words by Italian guitarist-composer Carlo Domeniconi could serve as a manifesto for this ebullient album from his distinguished Polish colleague, Krzysztof Meisinger.
Domeniconi is one of four composers featured on the guitarist’s second Chandos release, spanning nearly a century of eastern- and dance-inflected passion. There are some repertoire stalwarts here but, brought to life with technical ease and swagger, the combination of their placement alongside lesser-known works and Meisinger’s brooding volatility ensures freshness and a gathering dramatic intensity which shapes the whole.
Tárrega’s Capricho árabe sets the evocative tone, balancing tenderness and an as-yet-understated flamboyance through a plethora of Christian-Arab influences. Its major-minor swerves are echoed throughout in different ways – as is the boldness of its contrasts in Meisinger’s hands as that flamboyance lifts off via Albéniz’s ensuing Malagueña and rasgueado-driven Prélude (‘Asturias’).
In their wake, the searching, song-inspired modal harmonies of Mompou’s Suite compostelana are invested with nobility as well as pathos before galloping to a festive finish. Here and elsewhere Meisinger is unafraid to dip into harsher, more brittle tone colours, but they come into their own combined with percussive effects in Domeniconi’s Variationen über ein anatolisches Volkslied – and especially his wild, Turkish-influenced Koyunbaba; its drones and detuned, virtuoso flourishes spectacularly realised by Meisinger, who adds his own, improvised introduction.
Steph Power