Bogdanovič, Rózsa, Ginastera: Exordium, 20th Century Guitar Sonatas

Description

When Alberto Ginastera composed his Sonata for Guitar in 1976, he remarked that he had waited forty years before writing for this instrument. This was because he wanted to write a piece with strong formal unity, quite distinct from the many miniature landscape pieces one might expect from a composer attuned to the folklore of his native Argentina, where the guitar is the “national instrument”. By choosing to compose a Sonata, the three 20th-century composers featured on this CD by Alessandro Dominguez implicitly assert the guitar’s emancipation as an instrument for both timbral and formal experimentation.

Serbian-American Dušan Bogdanović (b. 1955) is noted for his remarkable openness in blending languages and styles: from mastery of ancient counterpoint and Renaissance improvisation techniques to an interest in jazz and ethnic music, his compositional style encompasses a vast universe, within which Balkan influences are crucial. The Sonata No. 1 “pour guitare seule” is an early work (1978), followed by three more Sonatas, a Jazz Sonata, and a Sonata Fantasia for two guitars. The opening Allegro ritmico is characterised by rhythmic dynamism with a quasi-neobaroque imprint (the initial motif recalls the opening of Bach’s Third Brandenburg Concerto), alongside extensive use of polytonality and polymetry. After a sweeter, more contemplative second theme, the obsessive initial rhythm returns in the development, culminating in a dry rasgueado (the characteristic flamenco strum). The second movement, Adagio espressivo, begins as a two-voice invention and develops in a rhapsodic style (“almost improvisation”), with evident gypsy inspiration. After a livelier episode, marked by a murmur of thirty-second notes, the recapitulation of the initial atmosphere is enriched by a great climax leading to resonant chords, then moving to a dreamy state until the sound fades. The third movement opens with a Moderato poco tenebroso of enigmatic chords, followed by an Allegretto quasi Scherzo that variates – according to a cyclical idea – the rhythm of the first movement. Metric changes, accent shifts, and the sense of obsession given by drone notes highlight the influence of great 20th-century Eastern European composers: folklore here is a means of complexity, not simplification. The instrument’s polyphonic potential is further exalted in the finale, Allegro molto, which presents a refrain with Dionysian vitality opposed by contrasting couplets: in the A-B-A’-B’-coda form, the Andante espressivo sections act as islands of sweetness, yet always with an underlying unease. The work concludes abruptly with two bars in lively tempo: a brief sequence of descending octaves followed by a pause and a dry A chord, “tainted” by a D-sharp.

Commissioned by Brazilian guitarist Carlos Barbosa-Lima and Robert Bialek, owner of a historic Washington shop celebrating its 25th anniversary with this composition, Alberto Ginastera’s Sonata Op. 47 (1916-1983) was composed in Geneva in the summer of 1976. Ginastera described it as “a work of vast proportions in four movements in which South American music rhythms appear here and there”. Ginastera presents the first movement, Esordio, as a “solemn Prelude followed by a song inspired by Kecua music, concluding with an abbreviated re-exposition of these two elements”. An arpeggiated lento, fff, opens, followed by an ascending rhapsodic figure, without strict tempo (Ginastera does not use bar lines). In the poco più mosso, the cantabile component (melody of chords) alternates and merges with the percussive one, imitating Latin tamboras. Using a wide variety of experimental timbral effects, Ginastera works on the polarities of sweetness/harshness and sound/noise. The second movement, Scherzo, to be played “as fast as possible”, is for the composer “a play of lights and shadows, nocturnal and magical atmospheres, dynamic contrasts, distant dances [lejanas, an adjective also used by Falla in his Noches en los jardines de España], surrealist environments”. A Wagnerian citation is also present, with Sixtus Beckmesser’s theme appearing towards the end as a phantasmagoria. The dynamic excursions are extremely sharp, almost seeking to astonish the listener, also through experimental means such as the tremolo etouffé, quarter-tone trills, and an aleatory sequence in the high register. Of particular suggestion is an episode to be played on the keyboard, “like a lute”, with rapid and dreamlike figures, suspended and luminously oneiric. The third movement, Canto, is described by Ginastera as “lyrical and rhapsodic, expressive and yearning like a love poem”. It features a rhapsodic flow and a contrast between a “slower and poetic” episode and the sudden ignition of a “fortissimo ardoroso”, a flash of brilliance followed by a contemplative coda. The finale, “rondò vivo e focoso” – as stated by the composer – recalls the strong and marked rhythms of the music of the pampas, combinations of “rasgueados” and percussive “tamboras”, mixed with metallic tones or string noises, creating “a special colour for this rapid and violent movement, which overall has the character of a ‘toccata'”. Characterised by extreme metric variety, this intoxicating finale expresses the most extreme (“impetuous” and even “ferocious”) side of Argentine folklore. Interestingly, in the Sonata edition, Ginastera includes a legend for the performer, explaining the experimental techniques required: for example, the whistling sounds, where the guitarist must slide as quickly as possible upwards on the indicated string, using the thumb and middle finger.

Renowned as a film music composer, Miklós Rózsa (1907-1995) was born and educated in Budapest (his teachers included Kodály and Bartók), and established himself between Paris and London before embarking on a career in Hollywood’s film industry, collaborating with directors such as Billy Wilder, John Huston, George Cukor, before signing a contract with Metro Goldwyn Mayer, which led him to write music for many famous epics. However, from the 1927 String Trio to works from the late 1980s, he never ceased to devote himself to absolute music, which intensified in the last decade of his life. In 1986, he composed three Sonatas: Op. 40 for violin, Op. 41 for clarinet, and Op. 42 for guitar, preceded in 1983 by a Sonata for flute and followed in 1987 by a Sonata for solo oboe. The Sonata for guitar is performed here by Dominguez in a new version based on the manuscript, with significant interpolations compared to the previously known version.

Unlike Ginastera, Rózsa employs a rather traditional writing style in terms of timbre, avoiding unconventional sounds. This does not mean his music, though entirely rejecting a post-Darmstadt approach, is not experimental. On the contrary, through the use of expanded tonality and bold triad connections, Rózsa reveals a highly personal language, marked from the initial Moderato by an atmosphere of mystery and suspense. In the first movement, a sort of two-voice dialogue, metre changes (4/4 and 6/4) do not cause strong breaks in the melodic flow. The main theme is opposed by a more playful motif with a rapid pace. The second movement, Molto moderato, almost a song, opens with a theme in the central register (“expressive and well singing”) continuing the initial subtle mystery, until a “più mosso” introduces a change of atmosphere, with reminiscences of Baroque polyphony. The return to Tempo I leads to a climax, until a sudden piano introduces a moment of sudden ecstasy, almost Debussyan in style (Rózsa evidently absorbed much of the Parisian sound world before moving to the United States). Throughout the Sonata, there is a clear search for a balance between horizontality (the unfolding of the melody) and verticality, with chords marking points of pause or harmonic shifts. In the finale, Rondò “Allegro frenetico”, chords play the role of shifting the accent, creating continuous trompe l’œil effects. Only in this movement does Rózsa resort to an effect outside classical techniques, the rasgueado already encountered in Bogdanović and Ginastera: in the A-B-A’-B’-A”-coda structure, the flamenco strummed chords appear three times, in an increasingly agitated atmosphere, until the exuberant virtuosic close in a triumphant A major.
Luca Ciammarughi © 2024