Mano A Mano - Works For Solo Guitar / Korhonen (2007)

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Mano A Mano - Works For Solo Guitar / Korhonen (2007)

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Finnish guitarist Timo Korhonen tackles substantial solo works by three of the late twentieth century's most important composers. Magnus Lindberg's sonata Mano a mano is the most lightweight contribution; he is skillful at exploiting the instrument's timbral variety, but the harmonic and rhythmic conventionality of the writing makes for a piece that is more bland than engaging. Each of the three movements of Takemitsu's In the Woods is each dedicated to a guitarist who championed his work: John Williams, Kiyoshi Shomura, and Julian Bream. Takemitsu's evocative miniatures are not musically complex, but their simple and spare gestures and extended silences are packed with emotional content, and they form an entirely satisfying set. Henze's Royal Winter Music, like many of his instrumental works, has a programmatic element that provided the composer with the spark for the music, but it is not immediately evident to the listener. The six movements of Royal Winter Music are undeniably dramatic, and each is distinctive in tone and musical content. Henze's harmonic language is largely atonal, but his gestures have a lyricism that ameliorates his tart harmonies. Korhonen plays with a richly varied tone and nuanced expression, which is especially apparent in the Takemitsu and the Henze. Ondine mikes the guitar a little too closely, especially in the Lindberg, the most technically challenging piece, where every slide and inadvertent tap registers clearly enough to be distracting.

Composer: Magnus Lindberg, Toru Takemitsu
Performer: Timo Korhonen

Reviews: The Finnish guitarist Timo Korhonen has long championed contemporary music, and this Ondine disc from 2007 features his performances of solo guitar works by three composers. I'm not a fan of Henze and I came across this disc while exploring the music of Lindberg and Takemitsu, so I'll limit my review to the pieces by those two here.

Toru Takemitsu was probably the most important modernist composer of guitar music, and the instrument appears many times in his catalogue. "In the Woods" (1995) is one of the his last works, completed just four months before his untimely death. Cast in three movements, it is meant to be a musical representation of various places: "Wainscot Pond", "Rosedale" and "Muir Woods". Like all Takemitsu, it is slow and meditative, with only the briefest moments here and there of fast tempo. I personally find Takemitsu's guitar work pleasant but nothing to get excited about, as much as professional guitarists think it's the cat's meow.

Magnus Lindberg's "Mano a mano" (2004) offers a refreshing change of pace at first, as it is rather busy and more overtly virtuosic. However, it gets dull quickly. Lindberg's mature output is almost entirely for orchestra or for duos that he can treat like miniature orchestras. His idiom generally doesn't work on guitar. Towards the end there's a couple of minutes of decent music, but it's not worth waiting so long for. Not a major Lindberg piece at all.