Reviews

TCG Hosts Lovro Peretić
Hixon Theatre, March 22, 2024
Review by John Campbell

Lovro Peretić, a classically trained guitarist from Zagreb, Croatia, closed Tidewater Classical Guitar's regular season at the Robin Hixon Theatre on Friday night (he performed the same program at the Williamsburg Regional Library Theatre the evening before). Among his many awards is his 2022 Guitar Foundation of America Grand Prize, which includes an extensive concert tour in the USA and Canada. After some fifty concerts he will play at the GFA 50th Convention at the Manhattan School of Music in New York City in June.

Todd Holcomb introduced the guest guitarist after calling our attention to TCG's co-presentation with Virginia Arts Festival of world-renowned flamenco guitarist Grisha Goryachev at the Hixon on April 24 and the Tidewater Guitar Orchestra performance at the VWU's Goode Theatre on May 4, and other related events, including a fund-raising event, "Close Encounters with Adam Kossler" on June 29. Details at TidewaterClassicalGuitar.org

Casually dressed in gray pants and an open collar dark blue shirt with purple highlights caused by red spotlights above, Mr. Peretić appeared with guitar in hand. A clean-cut, handsome young man, he sat down, closed his eyes and played three sonatas by Italian-born Domenico Scarlatti (1685-1757), originally written for harpsichord. Domenico was the son of Alesandro Scarlatti (1660-1725), a most important Italian opera composer. At age 31, Domenico Scarlatti attained legal independence from his father, and moved to the Iberian Peninsula. Scarlatti composed more than 500 unique, single movement "sonatas" while living in Spain and Portugal. None are dated and were composed for the Infanta María Bárbara, one of his royal pupils. The sonatas survive in two sets of fifteen volumes in the hand of a Spanish scribe. Sonata K. 380 had a familiar theme with many interesting variations. Sonata K. 208, with a very gentle opening, was conducive to introspection and Sonata K. 178 was faster, with demanding finger work, beautifully executed by Peretić.

These Baroque opening pieces were in bold contrast to the next selection by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893) The Seasons June: Barcarolle. Barcarolles are sung by Venetian gondoliers and suggest the rocking of a boat. After a sensual, romantic opening, the playing gained momentum in the repeated opening theme, originally written for piano.

The next piece, Reflections on the Dranyen, was the only music by a living composer and the only one by a woman—Andrea Clearfield (b. 1960 Philadelphia). A dranyen is a lute-like Tibetan instrument and her composition for guitar could be played on a dranyen. To produce the same sounds on a guitar, string bending was used to produce microtones. He used fingernail plucking like a plectrum. He used very strong vibrato on long-held notes and many percussive techniques. On Ms. Clearfield's website we learned that this piece was chosen as the set piece for the 2022 GFA International Artist Competition, won by Mr. Peretić.

Music by Augustín Barrios (1885-1944) included three selections, two of which can be found on a CD, The Great Paraguayan, Guitar Music of Barrios, played by John Williams. Of Mazurka appassionata Williams says: "The special magic of Barrios is that this romantic musicality is expressed by a far more imaginative and developed guitar technique than anything that had gone before - in this he was a great original, a kind of Chopin of the guitar." Oración por todos was played quietly with a ringing tone that pulled you into the mood of the title—"A prayer for everyone." The third piece, Valse de la primavera had me closing my eyes and imagining dancers whirling on a grassy, sunlit field as the piece once again returned to the opening theme.

Rondo Op. 129 is by Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco (1895-1968), a Jewish-Italian composer who settled in the U.S. in 1939. He was a prolific composer for the guitar, voice, and for Hollywood films as well as for Heifetz and Piatigorsky. As Mr. Peretić told us, the theme returns often. It could easily have been written as a film score. The repeated rounds required fancy fingerwork with many runs, all of them quick and precise.

Next came music by French composer Maurice Ohana (1913-1992) who was born in Casablanca on Morocco's Atlantic coast to parents of Spanish descent and educated in Paris. In 1946 after WWII ended he returned to Paris and formed Groupe Zodiaque "to defend freedom of expression against dictatorial aesthetic attitudes." In Cadran lunaire: I. Saturnal (Moon Dial) he flips the concept to indicate the nocturnal character of the music and the ancient Roman festival of Saturnalia held in December. Ohana explores a wide sound spectrum of African rhythms, Spanish music, plucking variations, and fast versus slow passages. There were deep percussive guitar strikes far below the bridge along with wide contrasts of tones of top and bottom strings.

The closing piece was by Dutch composer Karel Arnoldus Craeyvanger (1817-1868), titled Introduction and variations on a theme from Weber's opera "Die Freischütz." Some of this music may have been familiar since Virginia Opera presented the opera, billed here as The Magic Marksman, in January, 2017. Many quick notes created a ringing tone and walking scales created excitement. Our guitarist met the challenge flawlessly.

The single encore was a romantic piece by a youthful Claude Debussy. I especially appreciated the spoken introduction before each piece in his clear, charmingly accented English. The guitar, with its limited range of sound, made this music easy to love. Small changes make a strong impact and the whole experience is soothing in our otherwise noisy and busy life. Sitting on the front row and the Hixon's excellent acoustics didn't hurt either.