Overtures & Dances
Mela Guitar Quartet
rec. 2024, Valthermond, Netherlands
TRPTK TTK0145 [64]
The arrangements presented on this disc are almost uniformly excellent. The playing of the members of the Mela Guitar Quartet is impeccable, and their ensemble work is of a similarly high standard. The recorded sound is top class, with the balance between the instruments very nearly perfect, and subtle variations of timbre are well captured.
Sometimes, however – particularly when a work written for full orchestra is heard in an arrangement for much smaller forces – there is an inevitable sense of loss, when listening to the arrangement. It is unfortunate that that should be the case in the very first piece on this attractive disc: the arrangement of the overture to Glinka’s opera Ruslan and Lyudmila. The sheer heft and large-scale momentum of a large body of strings in Glinka’s overture along with the several interjections of percussion and the substantial contributions of the brass section, give the whole thing a weight and intense momentum that, by the very nature of the instrumentation, four guitars could never adequately replicate. It is, therefore, no reflection on the quality of George Tarlton’s arrangement or the panache and vitality with which it is performed to say that it proves to be a slightly disappointing opening to the disc, although the crispness of the guitar work is impressive.
Altogether more successful is Tarlton’s arrangement of Debussy’s Deux Arabesques. They were, of course, originally written for solo piano. The two pieces are alike in some respects (both are written in a simple A-B-A form, for example) and different in others (the first, in E major is considerably slower in tempo than the second, which is in G major). Both lend themselves attractively to versions for four guitars, especially when prepared as well as these versions by George Tarlton are. Both arrangements reflect the Islamic air implied by the term Arabesque (with reference to Islamic decorative style), something for which the guitar, with all its Andalusian associations is particularly well-suited. (As a singular noun, an Arabesque is a position in ballet). The four-guitar versions of these two Arabesques by Debussy constitute one of the highlights of this disc.
Another highlight is certainly Matthew Robinson’s arrangement of Ravel’s suite Ma mère l’Oye (Mother Goose) a set of pieces, originally for piano four-hands, though later orchestrated, based on a number of different fairy stories, by several different authors – for example Madame d’Aulnay (1652-1705), Pavane de la Belle au bois dormant, and Laideronette [The ugly little girl] and Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve (1685-1755), Les Entretiens de la Belle et de la Bête. The closing piece (Le Jardin fèerique) seems to be an invention of Ravel’s, without an earlier literary source. Ravel is known to have made up fairy stories to narrate to Mimi and John Gobeski, children of a close friend, to whom he also read existing stories. In representing these tales or, at least, well-known episodes from them, Ravel creates his own kind of textural and harmonic ‘magic’, not least when, in ‘Laideronette’ he makes use of elements of the Javanese music he had heard at the 1889 Exposition Universelle in Paris. But he also drew on established Western forms. ‘Les Entretiens de la Belle et de la Bête’ is described as a “valse modèrê” and ‘Laideronette, Impèratrice des pagodes’ as a “Mouvement de marche”. Matthew Robinson’s elegant arrangement captures very well all the charm and fantasy, the faux-naif qualities of Ravel’s writing for children. Most of the time the arrangement seems to be making use of the original version for piano duet, but there are also moments when it borrows from the orchestral version, as in ‘LesEntretiens de la Belle et de la Bête’, when the detuning of the low E-string mimics Ravel’s use of the contrabassoon. This version of Ma mère l’Oye is beautiful and sensitive music making.
The works I have left undiscussed are enjoyable listening, although I remain of the view that the arrangements of large-scale orchestral works are less than fully satisfying, losing more of the qualities inherent in them when arranged for a small ensemble made up of single instruments. I am aware, however, that not all readers/listeners will not agree with this view of mine and there is certainly nothing wrong with how the Mela Guitar Quartet play those arrangements.
The work of all four members of the Mela Guitar Quartet is exemplary and one of them at least has significant extra-musical talent too. The delightful image on the cover of the disc is the work of Zahrah Hutton, the one female member of the quartet.
Glyn Pursglove
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Contents
Mikhail Glinka (1804-1857)
Ruslan and Lyudmila: Overture (c.1841) (arr. George Tarlton)
Claude Debussy (1862-1918)
Deux Arabesques (1888-1891) (arr. George Tarlton)
Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921)
Samson et Delilah, Act III: Bacchanale (c.1877) (arr. Daniel Bovey)
Maurice Ravel (1875-1937)
Ma mère l’Oye (1908-10) (arr. Matthew Robinson)
Serge Rachmaninov (1873-1943)
Polka Italienne (1906) (arr. Vyacheslav Gryaznov / George Tarlton)
Gustav Holst (1874-1934)
A Fugal Overture (1922) (arr. George Tarlton)
Edward Elgar (1857-1934)
Three Characteristic Pieces (1899) No.2 Contrasts: The Gavotte – A.D. 1700 and 1900
(arr. George Tarlton)
Engelbert Humperdinck (1854-1921)
Hansel and Gretel:Overture (1891-2) (arr. George Tarlton)
Joe Hisaishi (b.1950)
My Neighbour Totoro: Suite (1988) (arr. Daniel Bovey)
