Octo_Russ

Various Composers - 'Live In Tokyo' Guitar Works [Boyd] 

For quite some time i've been meaning to buy some Liona Boyd discs, she's got some desirable discs in her catalogue, but which one?, i bought this as the cover looked really good, plus the repertoire on the disc sounded interesting too, though i'm a bit dubious about live recordings, especially in a recital of smaller pieces, but that didn't worry me as i listened to this disc, she plays pieces over a huge era, and a very varied programme, though i must admit that some more music would have been welcomed [53 minutes].

Liona Boyd was born in England, but moved to Canada when she was eight with her parents, so i guess she counts as Canadian, she's now 63, she made this recording in 1984, the front cover picture [by Yoshino Oishi], shows a portrait of Boyd, very much a Japanese theme, i like the green dress and the blonde hair, there's a certain glow about her in the sunlight, and like Japanese writing, the lettering is written from top to bottom, altogether a lovely picture.

There were some good unknowns on this disc, probably the Soler Sonata was a nice little discovery, but the piece that i found the really best was track 7 'Mallorca' by Albeniz, originally written by piano, it's transcribed here by Boyd herself, and i must admit that i've heard this piece being played on the guitar before, and on this version it's slightly different, a 6 minute piece, slow and languid, but with a faster and more exciting central section, the key is actually in D Minor [for me the key of death!, though i'm sure that isn't what Albeniz had in mind], the opening tune is gorgeous, so when the central section comes in [1:42-4:00] it creates such a wonderful variant, a very nice rhythm indeed, starting with an opening strum, and it uses this as a sort of 'idee fixe' throughout, and even in this central section, it seems to have it's own central section, where some nice judicious high treble notes are played [2:40-3:00], the return to the very opening tune [3:00+], can seem a Minor downturn, but the tune is beautiful, and the whole thing is played with expert virtuosity by Boyd, she can be a crossover Artist, but she's no slouch when it comes to the real thing, she's a serious pro, a lovely little recital disc, the Japanese audience are very polite indeed, and are as unobtrusive as can be.

Here's Samuel Klemke playing Mallorca by Albeniz on YouTube.