CATGUT FLAMBO - Harris Becker, Pasquale Bianculli (gtrs.) - MUSICIANS
SHOWCASE MSR 021699
(63:47)

Telemann Partita in D. SOR L'Encouragement. GRANADOS Spanish Dance No. 2.
Goyescas: Intermedio.
ASSAD From 3 Cenas Brasileiras: Pinote. MACHADO From Imagens do Nordeste:
Bolinhas de  Queijo: Xarango do Vôvô; Imagens do Nordeste. ROVICS Impressôes
do Brasil. BELLINATI Jongo

Becker and Bianculli call themselves Guitar X2. They have been performing
together since 1976, when they were students of Jerry Willard. Although they
have been featured recitalists in the New York City area for a long time,
this is their first recording together. It's an auspicious event for them,
and for Musicians Showcase Recordings, a new label on the classical scene.
Lately I've been Fanfare's two-guitar guy. In the past year or so I've
reviewed CD's by John Williams and Timothy Kain, Progetto Avanti, (Max
Gossell and Hakon Frennesson), and the Amadeus Guitar Duo (Dale Kavanagh and
Thomas Kirchhoff). Each has had a slightly different focus Catgut F/ambo has
a Brazilian emphasis. But the music on this disc would work well as material
for a live recital. It starts with a bit of Baroque music (this is Narciso
Yepes and Gondolieve Monden's transcription of Telemann's Partita for two
lutes), and moves into the Classical era with the florid, two-movement duet
that Fernando Sor called L'Encouragement.  Guitar X2 plays Napoleon Coste's
"improvement" of the original work, which placed fewer technical demands on
the second guitar. The balance of the disc - slightly more than half -
consists of music from (or about) Spain and Brazil. Granados's Spanish Dance
No. 2 (subtitled "Oriental") makes a bewitching transition into the
two-guitar format. The interlude from his Goyescas burns with quiet pride.
Sergio Assad's restless Pinote moves to jazzy harmonies; I assume he wrote
this to perform with his guitarist brother Odair. The three selections from
Celso Machado's collection Imagens do Nordeste are more ''pop": In English,
the first two numbers are entitled "LittIe Balls of Cheese" and "My
Grandfather's Jalopy," so this should tell you how serious they are. Howard
Rovics's Impressões do Brasil  is based on themes from Brazilian popular
music of recent decades, although to me it is the most "classical"-sounding
work in the Brazilian set. Paulo Bellinati's Jongo ends the CD brightly with
many rhythmic surprises; imagine a Brazilian jig danced by brothers with odd
numbers of legs. Near the end of the piece, the guitars are treated like
drums.
Becker and Bianculli have techniques that are beyond reproach. They eschew
bright colors and a brash performance style, and they seem most comfortable
with being mellow and quietly insinuating. Indeed, that's the sort of music
that dominates this program. Catgut Flambo is a great stressbuster, and I'm
sure something of a triumph for two guitarists who are not only colleagues
but friends. The excellent production and engineering are by Gregory K.
Squires.     Raymond Tuttle
                                      Fanfare     September/October 1999