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Alix Goolden Performance Hall
October 13, 2007
Roland Dyens is best known in the world of classical guitar as a composer, not a performer. It was thus entirely fitting that the evening's concert started not with Mr. Dyens, but an octet of guitarists (drawn, by all indications, from the students of Alexander Dunn, who directed the group) performing Dyens' composition Côté Sud. A stage full of guitars could have ended up a muddy monotonous mess, but the piece effectively uses contrasts in the extremes of a guitar's range and tonal colours to maintain clarity. The musically interesting piece received a spirited performance, so by the time the octet got to the little vocal coda, the audience was smiling along with the guitarists.
Roland Dyens then took the stage, and opened with an improvised piece that occupied a world somewhere between the guitar compositions of Heitor Villa-Lobos and Leo Brouwer, and the solo piano improvisations of Keith Jarrett. Dyens' improvisation was rooted in richly voiced chords, many of which blended notes fretted at the upper reaches of the fingerboard with open strings. These chords, either strummed or arpeggiated, were strung together in repeated progressions and tied together with fleeting melodic fragments. The improvisation was entirely convincing - I would very much like to have heard it again!
For the remainder of the evening Dyens moved seamlessly through a variety of standard repertoire classical guitar works, his own compositions, and arrangements of songs.
Typical of his own works are Flying Wigs and Songe Capricorne, guitaristic pieces that blend his various interests into a cohesive whole. Beyond his compositional skills, though, Dyens' ability as a guitarist was in evidence. The pieces are technically challenging - one even might venture "virtuosic", and Dyens didn't miss a beat. Equally important as playing the notes at the right time is playing musically, and Dyens performed brilliantly, incorporating a full range of dynamics (a most difficult illusion, given the constraints of the guitar) and tonal colour.
In addition to his own compositions, before the interval Dyens also played an Argentinian folk song and a brilliant arrangement of Jobim's Felicidade. Dyens imbuded the bossa nova standard with a variety of other Brazilian influences, not the least of which was the ghost of Hector Villa-Lobos.
In the concert's second half, Dyens played two groups of pieces that further demonstrated his range of interest and skill as a performer. First were a pair of works by the nineteeth-century guitarist and composer Fernando Sor, a cornerstone of what is traditionally considered "classical guitar". The Sor pieces were the relatively little-heard Mes ennuis, Op.43 followed by the familiar "for he's a jolly good fellow" melody of the "Malbroug" Variations, Op.28. By the end of the last variation, I'd come to the conclusion that if Dyens had chosen a career as a "standard rep" classical guitar recitalist, he would have succeeded.
But the second group of pieces were the real show-stoppers, and further showed why Dyens is much more than a "classical guitarist". Dazzling arrangements of four jazz standards - "All of Me", "Take the 'A' Train", "Nuages", and "A Night in Tunisia" - were flawlessly delivered, with swing. At the end of "A Night in Tunisia" (something of an in-joke, with Dyens having been born in Tunisia), the crowd immediately burst into applause and rose to its feet, a standing ovation well-deserved.
Reflecting back on the concert, I was struck by the range of musical interests and influences that Roland Dyens draws on. Equally important, Dyens is a great musician who imbues whatever he plays - his improvisations, compositions, and arrangements, and the compositions of others - with great warmth and spirit.
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