ROVSHAN MAMEDKULIEV : Guitar Recital CD
DE FALLA ( Arr. Fujii) : La Vida Breve – Danza No1 –Act II Scene I ; AMIROV : (Arr Mamedkuliev) : 12 Miniatures ( Excerpts) I Ballad, II Ashug’s Song, V Lyrical Dance, VI On Hunting , II Nocturne, X Toccata ; LLOBET : Theme and Variations on a Theme of Sor Op15; RUDNEV : Ivuska (Russian Folk Song Variations) ; ALBENIZ (Arr. Tarrega): Suite Espanola Op47- No3 Sevilla ( Sevillanas) ; TURINA : Sevillana ( Fantasia) ; CASTELNUOVO – TEDESCO : Capriccio Diabolico ( Omaggio a Paganini) : YORK: Just How Funky Are You; BROUWER : An Idea ( Passacaglia for Eli); TARREGA : Gran Jota .
Rovshan Mamedkuliev
NAXOS : 8 – 573179
Part of this company’s Laureate Series, this very varied collection of pieces has a lot of interesting pieces in it for most listeners, and certainly will have some that most of you won’t have heard of before. Born in Azerbaijan, Mamedkuliev has won more than 25 awards in guitar competitions, and is widely acknowledged as a major player of our wonderful instrument.
The opening Manuel De Falla piece is slightly different to what you might have heard before, simply because the arrangement is by Keigo Fujii, who does put as few different details into this piece, other than the arrangements you might have heard before. Nevertheless it is a great opening track. The next work by Fikret Amirov, 12 is a collection of short, expressive piano pieces by this Azerbaijani composer, blending classical European piano writing with rich traditional Azerbaijani folk modal colours and rhythms, and work really well on the guitar. They are genuinely lovely pieces that I would personally like to see the guitar scores for!
The famous Miguel Llobet’s pieces for guitar are all brilliant stuff and this 8 minutes + work is one of his very best, and also a really tricky piece to get your fingers around, because I, for one, have been trying for years! Needless to say, Mamedkuliev has absolutely no difficulty playing it!
Russian composer Sergey Rudney’s piece is a new one to me but full of emotional moments and is a lovely piece to listen to, and (I imagine) to play too!
Then we find Tarrega’s famous arrangement of Albeniz’s superbly musical Sevilla from the Suite Espanola.It6 is a very nice performance, although there were a couple of moments when I would swear that our performer has changed one or two of the details in the chords. Nothing too bothering, just something I noticed!
Then we are in very well known Segovian territory with the pieces by Joaquin Turina and Mario Castelnuovo – Tedesco, both beautifully performed, followed by a piece of Andrew York’s I haven’t come across before, called Just How Funky Are You, which is a surprisingly modern sounding work, especially with its title, because if you were expecting it to be a funk styled piece, you’d be wrong!
The piece by Leo Brouwer is again, one I haven’t come across previously, but is a beautiful emotional piece that I am surprised I haven’t seen or heard before!
The recital closes with Tarrega’s huge Gran Jota, a piece that really does show how excellent our player’s technique is!
So this is a lovely CD, beautifully recorded, and exceptionally played, and one that many people will love!
Chris Dumigan
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