Guitar recital with Dostoevsky's depth

Guitar recital with Dostoevsky’s depth

Dávid Pavlovits’s guitar recital in the Marble Hall of the Hungarian State Radio, 15 February 2007, 6 pm

MAGYAR HÍRLAP, Budapest, 17 February 2007

One of the most interesting part of Dávid Pavlovits’ s guitar recital was the Hungarian premier of the guitar sonata of Miklós Rózsa. The excellent guitarist, who is, just like Rózsa, much more known and recognized in abroad than in Hungary, has built his recital on sonatas, and the first 3 pieces by John Dowland were as well linked as movements of a sonata, the theoretical precedents of the following Rózsa-sonata. The (already published) score was discovered by the performer’s former teacher, Ede Roth. Surprising and overwhelming composition. Its structure reveals a composer of symphonic experience and full of ideas, Rózsa expands his melodies, develops the motives as a genuine composer of symphonies, at the same time keeping the apt instrumental character throughout the piece. It does not sound like a transcription, but as a work of of an author who knows and uses the instrument very well.

The first movement is evoking symphonic variations, and the next one is irresistibly melancholic, which was performed with such natural sincerity and mournful expression in the hands of Dávid Pavlovits, that it has deeply moved me both for the performer and the composer. This desperate movement is one of the most ’dangerous’ part of the 20th century guitar literature, which shows as much depth, as the gloomiest chapters of Dostoevski’s novels. The following composition by Pavlovits himself, the 2nd Sonata (’Relics’) didn’t bring a resolution to the dramatic atmosphere, it was even more majestic than the Rózsa sonata, it sounded like the background of a mystery play, showing a tone of gleaming darkness.

The final act of the recital, the famous sonata by Ginastera, performed in the best way I have ever heard, was disturbed by ringing of mobile phones. The well-known work of the Argentinian composer is evoking a ritual of human sacrifice: the first bars roll on the guitar as drums inviting to the shrine, it could be even the sound-track of Mel Gibson’s Apocalypto. This sonata and this concert has proved, what spectrum of sounds and emotions can be performed upon a classical guitar.