What was it that Julian Bream once said
he feared so much about shifts on the
guitar – something about sports shoes
squeaking on the gymnasium floor? Something
like that anyway. It’s one of the more
intransigent corollaries of guitar performances
that those squeaks crop up; doubtless
the vanguard of guitar pioneers on disc
in the 1920s and 1930s – and we’re certainly
not confined to Segovia here as Doremi
is constantly reminding
us – were fortunate in the more primitive
microphone responses of the time. But
I have to say that throughout this disc
by the fine Belgrade-born and youthful
Krivokapić I was reminded of Bream’s
rueful admission.
This wasn’t so much
of a problem in the Werthmüller
in this transcription by Franz Pfeifer.
Though he lived as late as 1841 this
is a determinedly Classical sonata,
originally for piano, though one to
which the guitarist brings a complement
of colour and vivacity. He can’t quite
convince one that the slow movement
sustains its melodic length but he certainly
brings out plenty of the bubbly vivacity
in the little Rondo finale.
Bach transcriptions
for the guitar have been popular ever
since Segovia ventured on his international
career. This one,
of the third sonata for solo violin,
is by Krivokapić himself. Nigel
North has arranged this – and recorded
it – for the lute but whilst Romero
has transcribed the second sonata for
guitar and John Williams and Segovia
have transcribed other movements from
the Sonatas and Partitas I’m not aware
of a currently available recording of
a transcribed C major sonata. This makes
Krivokapić’s something of a novelty.
Technically the difficult Adagio introduction
is tough to encompass and the results
are uncomfortable in respect
of those "noises off". The
Fugue comes off well and the Largo is
expressive enough but whilst the finale
is buoyant, as a listening experience
those chicken-clucking-gym-shoes-on-floor
noises just are too much and will unfortunately
prove irksome on repeated listening.
The
Scarlatti sonatas go reasonably well
on the guitar, albeit the warmly textured
K208 suffers gym shoes. The newish work
is Bogdanović’s 1985 sonata. This
is a pleasurable piece, forward moving
and full of rhythmic drama as
well as a real degree of melancholy
in the compact Adagio. There are hints
of gypsy chording and rhythm in the
finale – fast runs, elastic sense of
rhythm, not stinting on the digital
demands on the soloist either, all of
which are well met here.
A recommendation
is difficult. Clearly the competition-winning
Krivokapić is a name to watch.
The programme may well appeal given
the relative novelty of many of the
pieces – though you’ll have squeaks
to contend with above and beyond the
Bream quotient.
Jonathan Woolf
see also review
by Goran Forsling
Goran Krivokapić (guitar) 
