The Fantasia para una gentilhombre is by far the strongest
work on this disc: the orchestral playing is graceful and refined,
and suitably small-scale, while Rolando Saad’s playing is on-the-mark
and collaborative. The Torroba Sonatina is quite charming
in its own way, especially the alluring opening allegretto. The
slow movement is appealingly romantic though the finale’s odd
harmonics jolt the mood somewhat. Bacarisse’s Romanza sounds
a bit like the accompaniment to a love scene in a film: the music
doesn’t do an awful lot, but it’s pleasant on the ear.
That’s
where the good news ends, though, because the Concierto de Aranjuez is one of the poorest I’ve come across. The guitar playing
in the first movement is ridiculously ragged. There are fluffed
entries and poor time-keeping from Saad who struggles to maintain
the pace, often distorting the rhythm of the piece out of
all proportion. His fingers simply don’t have the pace or
energy to collaborate with the other musicians and he is made
to sound decidedly rough. There are even a few un-looked for
fluffs in the slow movement. Why on earth weren’t these fixed
in the studio edit? The sound, particularly in the slow movement,
is far too closely miked, right next to the ear-drum with
no room to breathe. The Carmen excerpts feel a bit
pointless (no guitar!) and the tempi are much too leaden to
let the music take off. The Barber overture begins
with energy, but the tempi in the allegro section are
all over the place: Mansurov seems unable to decide whether
he is speeding up or slowing down at times.
The
orchestral contribution is certainly fine, but there are too
many flaws for this disc to be viable. A disappointment.
Simon Thompson
Rolando Saad (guitar) 
