SOUNDBOARD/Journal for the Guitar Foundation of America Excerpt from the "Events" column in GFA Soundboard Published by the Guitar Foundation of America / Spring 1999 The Sante Fe Guitar Quartet is named for the region in Argentina, not for the city in New Mexico. Those attending the GFA festivals recently have heard the two premier guitar quartets in the world-- Los Romeros (last year in La Jolla) and this year the L. A. Guitar Quartet--and following either of them, much less both of them, must be an intimidating prospect for any guitar quartet. But the SFGQ demonstrates that there are still new sonic dimensions and repertory for the guitar quartet to be explored, and they do both with great ability For one thing, the SFGQ extends the range of the typical guitar quartet (of four equal instruments) by using both an alto and a bass guitar. They also seem to share various musical responsibilities to an unusual degree; for example, during their Piazzolla set, four pieces in duration, three different members of the quartet played the bass guitar. The SFGQ have also found a new and attractive, principally South American, repertory of original pieces and transcriptions which they perform with devotion, authenticity (it helps to grow up hearing those rioplatense strums) and remarkable precision. Their concert began with music by Astor Piazzolla. As the music of this late master of the "new tango" has become widely known in recent years (we heard plenty of it at this festival!), many guitarists have tried their hand at transcribing his music. But pieces conceived for traditional ensembles including bandoneon, piano, and a variety of other instruments are notoriously difficult to translate into concert pieces for solo guitar or duo As ingenious as some of these transcriptions occasionally are, the Santa Fe Guitar Quartet demonstrated that four guitars are much better able to approximate (to orchestrate?) the complexity of Piazzolla's musical universe, with its driving rhythms and dissonances. The Piazzolla set opened and closed with pieces from the well-known suite evoking the seasons in the composer's beloved Buenos Aires: Verano porteño and Otoño porteno. They also performed Adios Nonino, a work of shifting moods inspired by the death of the composer's father, and a brilliant arrangement of Buenos Aires hora cero--nighttime in the city--which uses both instrumental and compositional effects (reminiscent of Respighi's Feste romane) to depict a variety of urban sounds from traffic to a distant (whistled) tango, all over an ostinato jazz bass. Don't try this on solo guitar! The SFGQ also played two pieces from a set of three which the late Uruguayan composer Guido Santórsola had dedicated to them: the sweet and sad Valsa chorosa (weeping waltz), and Malambo, a gaucho dance performed with pienty of percussion on the sides and backs of guitars), the steps to which were also nimbly demonstrated by the Quartet. After a brief intermission, Abel Carlevaro, the revered Uruguayan virtuoso, composer and teacher, performed on one of the famous "Carlevaro model" guitars made for him by Manuel Contreras, demonstrating a facility that would be remarkable even if one did not know that he was eighty years of age. Carlevaro chose to play his own works: a set of Microstudies, two Cadencias (nos. 2 and 3), and Tres estudios composed in homage to Heitor Villa-Lobos. Many of the pieces appeared to be technical demonstrations, only occasionally (Cadencia No. 3) rising to the lyricism of his four Preludios americanos, but the performance was all the more impressive as a result. For the remainder of the concert, Carlevaro was joined by the Santa Fe Guitar Quartet in a world premiere performance of his Estampas concertantes, for solo guitar with guitar quartet. This is a fine piece, with shifting, dancelike rhythms and effective dialogues between soloist and quartet. For encores, Carlevaro played a gorgeous little solo and all five joined in the playful Venezuelan dance El Quitapesares. Also at this concert, Carlevaro was given a Lifetime Achievement Award, and the GFA competition winners were announced. And with the reception that followed, the 1998 festival came to its end.