The Blue Album Works by Debussy, Max Richter, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Satie, Scarlatti, Sor et al (arr. guitar) Pablos Sáinz-Villegas (guitar) Sony Classical 19658779092 47:10 mins
Pablo Sáinz-Villegas has won plaudits as a foremost exponent of the classical guitar and, in particular, for his championship of repertoire from his native Spain. He’s widely seen as heir to the great Andrés Segovia, which he considers a ‘beautiful responsibility’, aware of the wider significance of the guitar as ‘an instrument of the people [that] … nowadays… belongs to the world.’ This latest album builds on that idea, painting the guitar as an instrument that encapsulates a particular emotional space across time and cultures: ‘Blue’ does not reference ‘the blues’ stylistically, but rather an intimate sense of longing and reflection, symbolised by the ‘intermediary realms’ of dawn and dusk.
Each of the 14 miniatures – spanning Baroque composers Couperin, Weiss and Domenico Scarlatti, to film composers Stanley Myers and the late and much-mourned Ryuichi Sakamoto – is viewed through a wistfully romantic lens. With an emphasis on melodic sweetness, Sáinz-Villegas’s tone is warm and supple, his tempos often slow.
It’s an attractive mix, if rather reliant on familiar material and a homogeneous presentation which smooths stylistic differences. While Debussy’s ‘Clair de Lune’ and Satie’s first Gymnopédie and Gnossienne embody the pervading sense of nostalgia, of two items closer to home Iradier’s popular Basque song La paloma – arranged by the guitarist’s beloved Tárrega – presents the same in languid dance rhythms.
Most piquant are the knottier harmonies and textures of Glass’s Orphée’s Bedroom and Richter’s A Catalogue of Afternoons, which add a brief but welcome quizzical air to proceedings.
Steph Power
