John Duarte writes some of the most idiomatic and memorable guitar music to be found today, and what better way to introduce listeners to his oeuvre than through Antigoni Goni’s sympathetic, exquisitely rendered interpretations? The composer speaks of Goni’s attraction to music that is tonal, romantic, and clearly structured, and that’s exactly what we get with the eight Duarte works chosen for this collection. What does the music sound like? The Canzone from Suite Piemontese begins with spare dyads, followed by a simple, folk-like tune with careful counterpoint providing a poignant foundation of harmony. The chords become more sophisticated and even a little jazzy as the piece develops, yet, like Bill Evans’ piano voicings, they’re never complex for their own sake. Sly polytonal twists spice up Duarte’s textures in the way Virgil Thomson snuck deliberate “wrong notes” inside his “darn fool ditties” (the Toute en Ronde’s three movements are good examples). The five-movement Musikones evoke a mini-world tour of ancient dances and modes as seen through the ears of an eager guitar.
Holst and Grainger’s ghosts smile benignly upon the delightful English Suite, while witty clusters and aphoristic sequences characterize a suite inspired by swallows, sparrows, and a lone swan. Duarte’s three-movement homage to Antonio Lauro leads the time-honored tradition of guitar waltzes into new areas of accessibility. A touching Catalan folk song serves as the basis for a set of harmonically ingenuous variations that achieve maximum expressive variety within a steadfastly lyrical framework. I’ll bet that Duarte is as pleased with this disc as I am, and hopefully you’ll be too. Composers who describe their music in rambling, pretentious, self-promoting essays can learn from Duarte’s clear, heartfelt annotations.
