威廉斯1月7日在墨西哥的演奏会记录（英文）

wangjianguo

海报：January, Friday 7, 20:00 hrs.; Teatro de la Ciudad, Donceles #36, Col. Centro Histórico, Mexico City; (Metro Allende)
作者：kenr
John Williams played to a nearly sold-out theatre at Mexico City's beautiful Teatro de la Ciudad last night. The show, sponsored by Michael Neumann's guitarrisimo.com was a great success.

The first set was an interesting mix of repertoire pieces and more modern works. He started the show with Praetorius' Four Dances, which I had never heard before. These pieces, described as traditional 16th century pieces in the program, were a delight and a fantastic start to the show. Williams then moved on to two Albeniz pieces, Asturias and Granada, neither of which was on the program and both of which were beautifully performed. The thing that I was most struck with in Asturias was Williams' extraordinary control of dynamics and color. While this was evident throughout the show, it was truly show-cased in this piece.

He then moved on to two contemporary pieces, starting with Australian composer Peter Sculthorpe's Djilile. This was also a piece I had never heard before that Williams described as based on an melody found in the music of one group of indigenous Australians. It was nteresting piece, but it didn't grab me or the friends with whom I attended the show (one an accomplished classical guitarist and my teacher, the other a "lay person" with a great deal of interest in Latin American music). I'd be interested in hearing a recording of the piece to see whether it grows on me. (Interesting side note, Williams made an elliptical remark at the reception after the show about "Djilile" being a "whistling duck", but not a "duck that whistles". Anybody know what he means?)

The last piece in the first set was Domeniconi's Koyunbaba. I've always liked this piece, but I had never seen it performed before. It was absolutely stunning and a showcase, again, of William's remarkable control of color and dynamics. Technically, what struck me the most was Williams' right-hand technique. He effortlessly blends rasguesados, string dampening at the bridge, natural harmonics--the whole vocabulary of right-hand skills, even in a single measure. Applied by a performer of less skill, this could come off as mere "pyrotechnics"; in Williams' capable hands, guided by a profound artistic sensibility, it is magic.

The second set was largely dedicated to songs from Williams' most recent album, El Diablo Suelto, with a lovely interlude of three Barrios pieces. I was quite interested in seeing how Williams performed the Venezuelan piecs from Diablo live. One of the critiques of the album has been that the tempo is almost uniformly too fast and some have argued that that is simply the price you pay for squeezing more than twenty pieces onto a single CD.  Williams performs these pieces every bit as fast in concert as he does on the CD. Personally, I think it works--these are mostly vibrant, energetic, pieces and I can't see how playing these pieces at fast tempo could do anything but accentuate this vibrancy. People more deeply steeped than I am in the music of Lauro, Figueredo, Sojo, et. al. might disagree.

The Barrios section of the second set featured three of the Paraguayan composer's greatest works, La Catedral, La Ultima Canción, and Julia Florida. Williams expressed some frustration before starting La Catedral, pointing out the dance music that was leaking into the theatre from a party in an adjacent building. It was a shame, especially given that the acoustics in Teatro de la Ciudad are quite good. But I don't think that anyone heard the party music once Williams launched into Catedral's prelude, and certainly not after he was well into his jaw-dropping performance of the second movement. I say that it was a "jaw-dropping" performance because my teacher and friend Renato, who plays this piece beautifully, was quite literally left slack-jawed by the end.

If one needed confirmation that a great tremolo piece wows an audience, Williams' performance of La Ultima Canción provided the proof. The other friend who accompanied me to the show, the one who doesn't play guitar, was in awe, describing Williams' right hand in motion as resembling a "caterpillar". Williams' tremolo technique is indeed so fast and smooth that I must admit that I wasn't sure whether he was using the standard, classical tremolo or the four-stroke flamenco (pretty sure that it was standard a-m-i).

The one disapointment for me in the show was Williams' performance of  Julia Florida. In a show that was otherwise unmarred by errors, there were a few here. There were a few dropped notes and the tempo was somewhat uneven. Perhaps this impression is simply a result of this being the major work that I am currently practicing daily so I am hyper-sensitive to nuance.  Perhaps it was  simply a function of its being very near the end of the show.

I would also like to mention the contribution of the young guitarists from Paracho, Michoacan, both at the opening and closing of the show.  When I say "young", I mean young--most were under the age of 10. Particularly impressive was Verónica García Ayala who played one of Ponce's preludes during the opening act with great precision, skill, and spirit. Williams was obviously impressed with the kids and chose to finish the show by inviting them back for the last encore where he gave them a thrill of a lifetime by joining them for an ensemble piece.

This was an outstanding show. Williams exuded passion for the music he performed and the results were sublime.

wangjianguo

回复：Canbell  It is a nice idea to have concert reviews in the forum. I found that one particularly interesting because I happen to have attended a recital by John Williams here in Montpellier (France) only threebmonths ago, and the programme was basically similar, so it's interesting for me to read how you reacted to more or less the same music.

Mr Williams's technical abilities are certainly amazing, but this I was expecting so I was not surprised. Also, virtuosity as such is meaningless, although I must say he never tries to show off in that respect. I was however impressed to hear how well he manages the few mistakes he makes: he never misses the beat, he just starts the same bar or phrase again so that unless you know the piece pretty well you are just unaware of any error.

I fully agree with you when you praise him for his interpretation of Koyunbaba or Albeniz's and Barrios's music (well, except Julia Florida, but he did not play that one here), because those pieces require colour, control, and distance, and this John Williams can certainly provide. I also enjoyed the Djilile piece. But I was much less enthusiastic about the Venezualian music that made most of the second part of his recital here in Montpellier. This is simple, lively, sometimes festive music, and it just doesn't fit JW's style, or perhaps it doesn't fit a guitar recital, I don't know. Either way, I confess I was a little bored at times in the second half of the programme.

On the whole, it was a rich experience, one of the best I have attended as far as guitarists are concerned, but perhaps Julian Bream or Roland Dyens have impressed me more, because their involvement in what they were playing was more personal. A matter of taste, probably.

lv_zq

反受训

zhengbumingbai

popgog

看来哪里的业余爱好者（个人推测）看法都惊人的相似

wangjianguo

老PG说说你的看法，分享分享。

popgog

对吉他不了解的人通常对吉他的一些快速曲目比较吃惊，因为他们没想到吉他也能弹那么快（不是单纯的音阶），另外一个才逗，哇看阿，威廉斯的手指好像森林做梦的毛毛虫在一拱一拱的。。。不同类型的观众会从不同的角度去欣赏一个音乐会。作者弹吉他，所以会对曲目格外感兴趣，对威廉斯有没有弹错感兴趣，对于熟悉的曲目喜欢去对照，去比较，对不熟悉的曲目通常来不及放下心态去细品。非主流，现代作品一般爱好者也不是马上能接受的，从字里行间，推断楼主的吉他水平在5级关于那张cd，是有点珍珠翡翠白玉汤的感觉。