A Parisian in Paris: Contemporary Works for Guitar
Gabriel Blanco (solo guitar)
Quatuor Éclisses
rec. 2021-22, Levallois-Perret and Paris
Naxos 8.579161 [65]

This intriguing album offers excellent performances of French music for solo guitar and guitar quartet written between 2013 and 2022; all of the pieces are receiving their world premiere recordings here. All the solo items are played by the impressive Gabriel Blanco, while the one quartet piece is interpreted by Quatuor Éclisses, of which Blanco is a member.

Jules Matton’s complex but rewarding Sonata is in three movements (Très vite – Passacaille – Mouvement perpétuel). The first of these is, in its composer’s own words, “a kind of bizarre dance, rapid and virtuosic”, making much use of repeated notes and unpredictable leaps. The passacaglia which follows (in D minor) begins almost serenely before the music becomes more adventurous and complex; there is some polytonal writing later in the movement. The perpetuum mobile which closes the work lives up to its name, recalling motifs from the two earlier movements before reaching a relatively quiet close. This is a well-constructed work and Gabriel Blanco’s performance is lucidly perceptive.

Ará, by Orestis Kalampalikis was premiered by Gabriel Blanco (Paris, June 2019); it also carries a dedication to him. Originally from Greece, as his name suggests, Kalampalikis is now based in Paris. His Ará might be described as a tone poem for guitar on the story of Arachne. Her story is told by Ovid in Book Six of his lengthy poetic compilation of mythological narratives the Metamorphoses. Arachne was the beautiful young daughter of a shepherd in Lydia who took up weaving in her childhood and became very arrogant about her skill as a weaver, so much so that she challenged the goddess Athena to a weaving contest; Arachne depicted the loves of the Gods in her tapestry, which angered Athena, who tore Arachne’s web to pieces and beat her. In her disappointment and despair, Arachne killed herself. However, Athena changed her into a spider – so that she would continue to weave, but all her webs would be torn down by human beings. Kalampalikis’ composition alludes to several of the key incidents in the story, as outlined above. It is in three short movements (Rumeur – Le Concours – Nemesis) and has both charm and power (especially in the final movement), both evident in Gabriel Blanco’s interpretation.

Camile Pépin’s Autumn Rhythm was originally written for violin and piano but is here played in an arrangement for solo guitar by Gabriel Blanco. It is a response to one of Jackson Pollock’s huge canvases with the same title. In her booklet note on the piece Pépin writes that the painting “has no real beginning or end. The eye is simply drawn inside the painting. Threads of black paint contrast with ochre and white patches; the alternating light and dark areas create lighting effects. It’s this emphasis on texture, the choice of tones, and these interwoven bundles of lines that give the canvas its haunting rhythm”. In her musical recreation of Pollock’s canvas, Pépin uses repeated rhythmic loops and intends the whole to have “a hypnotic and intoxicating feel”. It does; though I am not at all sure that it really captures the swirling autumn winds implicit in Pollock’s painting, and I have to confess that I lost interest after three or four hearings of Autumn Rhythm.

Although I found the compositions by Jules Matton and Orestis Kalampalokis to be of the most lasting interest, some of the other pieces on the disc are also quite rewarding. Karol Beffa’s Le Miroir des heures is a satisfying work, made up of a theme and twenty-four variations, which traverse, as our minds and moods might in the twenty-four hours of a single day, many different emotions – playful, solemn, sad, reflective, excited etc. It is interesting to note that, as Beffa himself explains, his title was “borrowed from a collection by Henri de Regnier [1864-1936], a subtle poet who was close to the Symbolists and much loved by Ravel. In tribute, there are a few Ravelian reminiscences scattered throughout the work”. This was a work of which I grew fonder with each hearing.

The one work on the disc for guitar quartet is Matthieu Stefnelli’s Ellipsis, in four parts. I am afraid that I am more or less confused by the composer’s note on the piece, in which he tells us that it was inspired by “music of Spanish origin”: I have no problem with this information and can hear the influence in the music. My problems begin with his references to the etymology of the term ‘ellipse’ (from Latin ellipsis) “… The ellipse manifests itself musically as an irregular spiral, translated by metrical and rhythmic changes”. I presume these are the “swirling rhythms” very recognisable in the first part of Ellipsis. I suspect that this is a case where I might have enjoyed a work more if I had initially listened to it ‘innocently’, rather than reading the composer’s note first and then found myself trying to recognise what he said about it.

The disc closes with an entertaining miniature by Thomas Viloteau and a colourful piece by Atanas Ourkouzounov. Viloteau’s A Night in Bastille celebrates an evening during the shared student days of Viloteau and Gabriel Blanco. Viloteau writes that this was “An incredibly productive time in our lives, we used to work on our guitar all day and keep a good life balance by partying at night”. The music of A Night in Bastille is characterised by sudden increases in speed and, equally abrupt, it stops. As the composer observes, “The music seems to describe one evening in particular, when we were stumbling along the cobbled streets of Bastille, where I lived at the time, trying our best to hail a taxi”. With its frequent changes of direction and some blues and rock inspired figures, A Night in Bastille, captures such a mood and atmosphere very well.   

Atanas Ourkouzounov’s Trakiiska Elegia (Thracian Elegy), which closes the disc, is altogether different. It recalls the composer’s origins in Bulgaria – he was born in Sofia, studied guitar, chamber music, analysis, ethnomusicology and improvisation at the Paris Conservatory, graduating in 1997. He now teaches at the Conservatoire ‘Maurice Ravel’ in Paris. His contribution to this disc makes use of a traditional Bulgarian song at its opening and its close. The whole abounds in music based on Balkan rhythms and modes, while also finding space for some distinctly modern effects.

All in all, this is a rewarding and varied disc of contemporary compositions for the guitar. Gabriel Blanco plays all the music with insight and panache.

Glyn Pursglove

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Contents
Camille Pépin (b.1990)
Autumn Rhythm (2018, arr. Gabriel Blanco, 2020)
Jules Matton (b.1988)
Sonate pour guitare seul (2022)
Karol Beffa (b.1973)
Le Miroir des heures (2013)
Orestis Kalampalikis (b.1981)
Ará (2018)
Matthieu Stefanelli (b.1985)
Ellipsis for guitar quartet (2019-21)
Thomas Viloteau (b.1985)
A Night in Bastille (2022)
Atanas Ourkouzounov (b.1970)
Trakiiska Elegia (2015)