Klimt! - Kiss the Guitar Player - Dialogues for guitar & string quartet (2009)

Tracklist

01. Gustav On the Rocks
02. Into ecstasy
03. Fandango from Guitar Quintet In D Major, G. 448
04. Beyond reminiscence-universal
05. Rumba de Tuti
06. What Is There to Say
07. Toccata
08. Trinity for String Quartet: I. Adagio
09. Trinity for String Quartet: II. Allegro Feroce
10. Trinity for String Quartet: III. Largo
11. Sunday Night Shuffle
12. Thingin'
13. Catch the Groove
14. Kiss the Guitar Player
15. Dance of the Seven Veils, from Guitar Qiuntet In D Major, G 448

Klimt!, otherwise known as the Gustav Klimt String Quartet, says in the booklet notes (in Dutch and English) that its aim with Kiss the Guitar Player was "to portray a kaleidoscopic view of the Dutch guitar scene." This the group does, but, as often happens when something is done well, it also accomplishes something beyond the original goal. The music is light, and the album title whimsical, but this album does nothing less than reflect on the relationship between the guitar and the bowed strings, in the past as well as the present. When you first hear the quartet playing funky music in the opening Gustav on the Rocks, by guitarist Peter Tiehuis, you may think this is another of the many attempts at Kronos Quartet cloning that appeared in CD catalogs, but the program quickly becomes more diverse. The key is that most of the music was newly comissioned, from performing guitarists, and it set only a single condition: the composer was not to use a concerto-like texture, with the strings backing up the guitar, but rather was charged with creating the titular "dialogues." Put that together with the variety of styles these guitarist-composers play and you've got a couple of intersecting axes that result in music falling all over the range. Bert Meulendijk's Into Ecstasy (track 2) sets rock electric guitar against high string duets. There is classic pop, jazz, more or less formal concert music, and flamenco influences at several points. The frame is perfectly set in place with the inclusion of a couple of movements of the conventional starting point of music for guitar and string quartet, the Quintet in D major for guitar and strings, G. 448, of Luigi Boccherini. Let's just say these are heavily tweaked. A delightful release combining experiment and entertainment in a way at which the Dutch seem to excel.

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