eos guitar quartet - live

Egberto Gismonti * 1947/ Leo Brouwer * 1939
Gismontiiana

Ralph Towner * 1940
Confluence

eos guitar quartet
musikkollegium winterthur
leo brouwer conductor

The recording of ‘Gismontiana’ is a live recording of the concert given by the Eos Guitar Quartet together with the Musikkollegium Winterthur under the baton of composer Leo Brouwer on 27 March 2014 in the concert hall of the Stadthaus Winterthur as part of the inguitar festival and was broadcast by Radio SRF 2 Kultur.

It doesn't take much imagination to suspect that the programme of this CD is part of a Swiss diplomatic offensive. A Swiss guitar quartet plays works by a Cuban and an American. Cuba and America were not particularly friendly towards each other for decades, until Barack Obama heralded a new era in Cuban-American relations in 2016. As a neutral country, Switzerland has often acted as a mediator for the United States of America in such situations.
But this is by no means a matter of diplomacy. The Eos Guitar Quartet has repeatedly performed works by Leo Brouwer and Ralph Towner, and has also commissioned compositions from both artists. They know and appreciate each other. And as a highly specialised chamber music ensemble, the Eos Guitar Quartet naturally also strives to contribute to the expansion of the repertoire for such an instrumentation.

If there is a parallel between politics or diplomacy and music in this context, it is the desire to synchronise processes and procedures. Synchronisation is certainly the magic word when it comes to the interplay of four guitarists. The individual voices must be synchronised rhythmically, dynamically and agogically in order to achieve the effect intended by the composer.

Leo Brouwer's (born 1939) ‘Gismontiana’ is music that has undergone several filtering processes. Brazilian guitarist and pianist Egberto Gismonti (born 1947) drew inspiration for his own compositions from traditional Brazilian music, which in turn is influenced by the practice of guitarists – but Gismonti then composed them for piano. Leo Brouwer, in turn, turned these piano pieces back into guitar music and added an orchestra. These different layers, which overlap, are part of the technical and artistic challenge for the Eos Guitar Quartet.

Ralph Towner (born 1940) is also a guitarist and pianist himself, but he does not primarily write his music from a guitarist's perspective. And yet, the specific sound language he has developed on this instrument is an integral part of his music. As a guitarist playing Towner's music, one often hears in one's head how Towner himself would play this or that passage.

The setting that the Eos Guitar Quartet has embarked on here thus offers the musicians a highly interesting field for interpretative freedom in diverse yet related musical traditions from Brazil to Cuba and from classical to jazz. As a listener, one cannot help but be moved by this. However, no diplomatic skill or know-how is required to appreciate it.

Peter Bürli