{"id":178,"date":"2011-02-04T14:12:21","date_gmt":"2011-02-04T18:12:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/aaronlc.com\/blog\/?p=178"},"modified":"2011-02-04T14:12:21","modified_gmt":"2011-02-04T18:12:21","slug":"boston-musical-intelligencer-concert-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/alcguitar.com\/blog\/boston-musical-intelligencer-concert-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Boston Musical Intelligencer Concert Review"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n‘Larget-Caplan Doing Everything Right’<\/em><\/h1>\n
http:\/\/classical-scene.com\/2011\/01\/08\/larget-caplan\/<\/a><\/h5>\n

by Susan Miron<\/a> \u2022 January 8, 2011<\/h3>\n

Some thirty markedly enthused people gathered on Friday, January 7, at the small recital room at New School of Music in Cambridge to hear guitarist Aaron Larget-Caplan in a program that mixed well known and unknown pieces and composers. Larget-Caplan is in the beginning stages of what promise to be a good career. He\u2019s doing everything right \u2014 making interesting CDs, commissioning and performing both classical and Spanish and Latin American music, often with a dancer, and playing very well.<\/p>\n

Dressed all in black with a red tie, Larget-Caplan\u00a0opened his program with J.S. Bach\u2019s Prelude, Fugue and Allegro in E-Flat Major<\/em>, BWV 998, originally titled Compositionen f\u00fcr die Laute, <\/em>in E flat. Written at the time of Bach\u2019s lute suites, it was probably performed on a lute-harpsichord. The fugue is longer than the other two movements combined, and like most Bach fugues, presents traps that can be most disheartening. As many performers know, opening with Bach may be great for the audience, but is always better if one had already rid oneself of nerves. Larget-Caplan, who played it in D Major, got through it with grace.<\/p>\n

From the\u00a0Qua<\/em>tre Pi\u00e8ces Br\u00e8ves<\/em> by Frank Martin (1890-1974) on, Larget-Caplan seemed more at ease (who wouldn\u2019t be after performing a Bach fugue?) and his playing immediately became far more interesting and colorful. The program notes explained that these four lovely pieces were written in 1933 for guitarist Andr\u00e9s Segovia who refused to play it (another idol goes up in flames). Martin then re-scored it for piano, calling it Guitarre<\/em>. Kevin Siegfried\u2019s (b. 1969) \u201cTracing a Wheel on Water\u201d was commissioned by Larget-Caplan in 2003 and has had spectacular and deserved success since then. According to the program notes, it has been performed in over 50 concerts and is the title of one of Larget-Caplan\u2019s CDs. It\u2019s a hypnotic work, what the composer says \u201cis a meditation on my experiences of the water\u2019s surface\u2026 a manner in which flowing circles on the water\u2019s surface envelop one another in a rhythm that is always new, yet never changing.\u201d This hypnotic and beautifully written work was, for me, the highlight of a really interesting concert.<\/p>\n

Elegie f\u00fcr die guitarre<\/em> by J.K. Mertz (1806-1856) was, in guitar terms, a long piece, about ten minutes. A piece of great charm, it was just the right thing for a nasty January evening. At least two heads in the audience were contentedly bobbing along the whole piece; people seemed to be entering a state of total relaxation.<\/p>\n

If so, they were awakened in the most seductive manner with the ever-famous Concierto de Aranjuez<\/em> by Joaquin Rodrigo (1901-1999), here performed with piano accompaniment. Do most people know him for any other piece? This is yet another piece Segovia refused to play, as he did not approve of the rasqueados<\/em> (flamenco strumming) of the first movement.\u00a0 I admit, I did not look forward to hearing this colorful orchestral accompaniment in a keyboard reduction, as piano and plucked strings (harp and guitar) need a pianistic wizard to get the balance right. Luckily, Larget-Caplan had a terrific pianist, Kai-Ching Chang, about whom I cannot rave enough. The two musicians played superbly together, so the two (first and second) movements they played were like the most exciting of chamber music pieces. Chang might not be well known in Boston, but as a collaborative pianist she cannot be beat. The Rodrigo was full of excitement and passion; I felt as if I were transported to Seville. I\u2019d hear it again in a heartbeat.<\/p>\n

I have a new way of scoring concerts. 1), Would I see the performer or group again? Absolutely. 2), Did I like the evening enough to shell out hard cash for a CD? Reader, I bought two.<\/p>\n

Susan Miron is a book critic, essayist, and harpist. Her last two CDs featured her transcriptions of keyboard music of Domenico Scarlatti.<\/h5>\n

Boston Musical Intelligencer \u2022 a virtual journal and blog of the classical music scene in Boston<\/em>
\n<\/em><\/h3>\n

4 Comments<\/a><\/h2>\n
    \n
  1. I was there, and I second the above! A great set, and Kevin Siegfried\u2019s piece in particular was pure gorgeousness! The Martin as also a highlight, fine work all around.\n

    Comment by Ben Houge<\/a> \u2014 January 9, 2011 at 1:22 pm<\/a><\/cite><\/li>\n

  2. It\u2019s great to see Larget-Caplan continuing to succeed. I missed this particular concert but have attended and enjoyed several over the last few years. Needless to say, I keep going back, and I keep buying CDs. Bravo Aaron!\n

    Comment by Carol Childress \u2014 January 9, 2011 at 2:29 pm<\/a><\/cite><\/li>\n

  3. I also second the above \u2013 all of it. I was not able to attend this concert but did attend quite a few of Larget-Caplan\u2019concerts last year. Along with other guitar aficionados and players I feel privileged to witness a wonderful music career in its take-off stage. Anyone so dedicated to music and to his instrument as Larget-Caplan deserves the success already on its way.\n

    Comment by Tom Silver \u2014 January 9, 2011 at 3:06 pm<\/a><\/cite><\/li>\n

  4. there are a lot of good guitar players out there, but there is nothing like an original. aaron lives it.
    \n~chich<\/p>\n

    Comment by chicharrone \u2014 January 9, 2011 at 9:40 pm<\/a><\/cite><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    ‘Larget-Caplan Doing Everything Right’ http:\/\/classical-scene.com\/2011\/01\/08\/larget-caplan\/ by Susan Miron \u2022 January 8, 2011 Some thirty markedly enthused people gathered on Friday, January 7, at the small recital room at New School of Music in Cambridge to hear guitarist Aaron Larget-Caplan in a program that mixed well known and unknown pieces and composers. Larget-Caplan is in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,1,53],"tags":[18,54,16,50,56,55,57,51,46],"class_list":["post-178","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-concerts","category-general","category-reviews-2","tag-aaron-larget-caplan","tag-boston-musical-intelligencer","tag-classical-guitar","tag-concierto-de-aranjuez","tag-frank-martin","tag-j-k-mertz","tag-j-s-bach","tag-kai-ching-chang","tag-kevin-siegfried"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/alcguitar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/alcguitar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/alcguitar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/alcguitar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/alcguitar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=178"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/alcguitar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":182,"href":"http:\/\/alcguitar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178\/revisions\/182"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/alcguitar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/alcguitar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/alcguitar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}