Maximo Diego Pujol
Les Productions D’Oz: 4 pages
Certainly a true master of his art, and one of the most important guitar composers of the last 100 years, Maximo Diego Pujol’s music never disappoints, and this latest piece is no exception.
This Andante G Major work is full of emotion from the start. After an interesting and unexpected four bar introduction where a 5 – note motif is split up over 5 different strings, and everything rings together as only a guitar can do successfully, the main theme enters with a quintuplet of quavers particularly evident as one of its main features. The three voices continue for a considerable time with the main theme and the beautiful harmonies underneath showing us what a fabulous writer Pujol is. Everything is of course utterly tonal but still manages to sound like almost nothing you have heard , or played before, as the master manages to put his music in places where others haven’t. After a brief close on G , a new E Minor section with a rocking two notes idea taking the lead here after a rallentando on a B7 arpeggio, you expect perhaps that the E minor will return for one more time , but instead the next bar takes you back to the opening main theme that began on a C Major arpeggio. Here then the opening section, slightly varied, returns for one more time, with the quintuplet parts now becoming 8 semi – quavers instead. Again the section is different in a few small places , and then finally the quintuplet idea returns for one more time , this time harmonised into two voices, before the coda intervenes, and everything dies away on a G major chord coloured with an added A
This is a moving and beautiful work that manages to capture the player’s imagination and emotions and doesn’t disappoint for a second, and I can see this being a lovely work to hear in a recital. I haven’t mentioned the difficulty factor, which is only intermediate and certainly playable by a decent guitarist, as the technical requirements for this piece are not huge.
Chris Dumigan
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