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A sad day for me. Most of the time I don't care about classical guitar interprets, in this day and age it is really common to have good technique and the majority of them have nothing to show. Don't get me wrong we need interprets and I did listen to some really great recitals but I will never buy a cd in 2016 with some Tarrega or Albeniz music... It's already be done to death. I like it when an artist follow his own path, be it writing compositions, arrangements, improvising while taking risks even if it does not work every time which is are in the classical guitar field.
So about Roland Dyens, he was one of the rare that was actually a very high level musician. Ricardo mentions him a couple times previously and he was right (as always). First he did write his compositions, secondly he was a really great arranger not the youtube kind arranger... He really did understand classical guitar, great technique, great rhythm and amazing dynamics.
For those who maybe not be familiar with his work some of his pieces are pretty well know such as tango in skai :
A really great arrangement of El choclo a great tango :
Here is maybe the only piece written for piano by Chopin where the guitar arrangement is very well done. Normally I absolutely hate any chopin music on guitar but this one I like
(the 6 is in B)
An easy piece which is great :
If some are searching for difficult pieces but pleasing to the hear and easy to memorise He did arrange a couple of french songs using multiple different tunings. They are really pleasing to the ear but are very difficult to play :
You can find them on "chansons françaises vol 1 & vol2", or the reedition paris guitare.
I'm not a big classical guitar fan but Tango en Skye was on of the first songs I TRIED to learn on the nylon string guitar. He appeared to me at least to have a unique creativity compared to many in his field.
A major loss to the guitar world. I can't find it but he had the very fast piece in G# where he alters the tuning while playing that was to me really impressive and musical while being visually entertaining.
I only heard Dyens live once, at the Cuernavaca International Guitar Festival in 2000. There was a mic and a pretty good sound system in the relatively dead converted movie theater. During the first number Dyens motioned to the sound man to boost the gain a couple of times, until he was a fair amount louder than most amplified classical players. You could hear all the nuance of his tone and dynamics, and appreciate the security of his technique.
I remember three pieces from that night. He played his own arrangements, very virtuosic, but smoothly rhythmic.
He played Baden Powell's "Berimbau" which mimics the instrument that accompanies the Brazilian dance/martial art Capoeira.
He played "Around Midnight" by Thelonious Monk, in a profoundly moving way.
He played Tom Jobim's "A Felicidade" which I first heard in the movie classic "Orfeu Negro" ["Black Orpheus"].
In the last scene Orfeu has died, but the little boy he was teaching to play takes Orfeu's guitar and fulfills the daily task of playing the sun up out of the Atlantic ocean..the ancient Greek myth of the reincarnation of Orpheus played out in the favela of the Morro da Cabra in Rio de Janeiro.
The end of the scene, with children dancing to Luiz Bonfa's "Samba de Orfeu," played by the little boy, always brings tears to my eyes.
The next night Dyens and I happened to be walking out of the concert at the same time. I said to him, "When you played 'Berimbau' I thought Baden was about to pop out of your guitar." Dyens smiled.
I added, "I didn't think anyone but a Brazilian could play samba like you did on "A Felicidade."
Dyens smiled again and said, "Maybe I was Brazilian in a former life..."
I went to Rio de Janeiro the next day. A couple of days later I sat on the cliff of Morro da Cabra, high above the skyscrapers of Ipanema, watching the great flaming red-gold ball of the sun rise majestically out of the blue Atlantic...with Dyens' playing sounding in my head.
A major loss to the guitar world. I can't find it but he had the very fast piece in G# where he alters the tuning while playing that was to me really impressive and musical while being visually entertaining.
A major loss to the guitar world. I can't find it but he had the very fast piece in G# where he alters the tuning while playing that was to me really impressive and musical while being visually entertaining.
I got you hombre.
Cool thanks. Actually it's not fast at all, I think my brain combine this piece with libre sontatine the fast movement.
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