Lunchtime Concert - Sean Shibe - Guitar

[Guest]

Just caught the end of this at lunchtime - link here - so have just listened to the whole thing. Some very expressive playing - and when did we last have a guitar recital? So much thanks for this. A very Bream-ish programme - Dowland, Bach, Henze and Britten, the last two works being written for Bream and appearing on his ground-breaking "20th Century Guitar" LP. The second of the two Dowland Fantasies and the Bach BVW 998 were both on the very first guitar LP I bought, aged 15, by Oscar Ghiglia - a very astute bit of programming by Shibe to place the two side by side as he explains on his blog.

SMP's intro was inaccurate - she said Robert Dowland published the Varietie of Lute Lessons in 1610 when his father was away in Denmark. Dowland had been dismissed by the King of Denmark in 1606, so was long back by this time, and the Varietie consisted of pieces (by Dowland and others) that had appeared before. The Fantasy exists in two versions (as a quick glance at Diana Poulton's book would have informed SMP - how do presenters prepare for this sort of thing?), having been composed some years earlier but tidied up in the Robert Dowland publication. Dowland finally got his job at the English court in 1612, but his great composing days were behind him by then.

A pretty good stab at the Britten Nocturnal, one of the finest pieces in the repertoire.

A meaty and resonant guitar, which - I managed to decipher SMP's announcement with the help of Google - I see is a Kwakkel - new to me.

[Richard Tarleton]

Apologies for bumping this, but did anyone listen second time round? The first ever YGA guitarist I think SMP said, so he deserves every encouragement IMV.

[doversoul1]

I did and very much enjoyed the programme and the performance. The first (and still the last, I think) YGA harpsichordist is doing very well, so I hope Sean Shibe will do well, too (no logic behind it). The YGAs are quite frequently featured on Radio3, so I hope we’ll hear more guitar music from now on.

As it was repeated on Saturday, it is still available.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03t0b9s

[bluestateprommer]

I did and very much enjoyed the programme and the performance.

Same here, very fine and enjoyable recital, from hearing it on iPlayer on this side of the pond. Shame this recital didn't seem to get more attention from people here. For those who complain about dumbing down, the riposte is to listen to "less populist" programs like this one and recommend it to your friends, and even to go so far as to comment on R3's FB page praising this program, and asking for more programs like it.

[johnb]

I've finally got round to listening to this. It was an interesting programme (very Bream-ish was RT said) and Shibe is very talented and has great potential.

I thought the Britten was very good indeed and, for me, easily the best thing in the recital. Being very critical, I was somewhat less impressed with the performances of Dowland and Bach, e.g. the Prelude of the Bach was too fussy and marred by excessive rubato and, at times, a lack of clarity in the phrasing.

Perhaps it was due to the microphone placement but I got the impression that his playing, to an extent, lacked some projection (apart from in the encore). Also, often when he was playing fortissimo the treble sometimes sounded forced with a rather harsh tonal quality - though that might be due to the instrument he was playing. Also, to me the mid range sound of the guitar was rather dull, as though the strings were past their best but, as I said, that might very well might be due to less than ideal microphone placement.

Definitely someone to watch.

(By the way, the encore was an the Canción from Mompou's Canción y Danza No 6, originally for piano.)