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FROM 21–28 May 2012 the KoblenzInternational Guitar Festival &

Academy held its 20th festival. TheOpening Night Concert began withsome important speeches by the long-

standing supporters of the Festival, includ-ing Prof. Dr Joachim Hofmann-Göttig, the

Mayor of Koblenz, Mr Herbert Laubach, theDirector of LOTTO-Rhineland Palatinateand Dr Richard Koch-Sembdner, Presidentof the Koblenz International Guitar

Society e.V.. The concert featured thetwo teachers at the Koblenz

International GuitarAcademy: Aniello Desiderio andHubert Käppel. Hubert Käppel hasbeen a part of every festival for thepast 20 years and so chose to play thevery same programme that he had per-formed at the first festival in 1993.Starting with a powerful performanceof Canticum by Leo Brouwer, hisrecital also included an unforgettableperformance of Hans Werner Henze’sMemorias de ‘El Cimarrón’. Henze’swork tells the story of a runaway slavecalled Esteban Montejo and HubertKäppel narrated the story in Germanat the same time as the playing thecomplex guitar part. Henze used manydifferent techniques to create theatmosphere of the story including tap-

ping rhythms on the guitar, playing the guitar with aviolin bow, and has the performer make sounds bywhistling and clicking his tongue. It was a demandingpiece but Hubert Käppel’s performance was excellent.

In the second half of this recital there was absolutesilence in the hall as Aniello Desiderio began to play theFandango by Aguado. Starting with a gentle pianissimo, hislight and delicate articulation was captivating and his soundresonated throughout the hall; he produced an equally beau-tiful tone quality in Coste’s Le Depart. Brouwer’s Rito de losOrishas was played with an acute sense of drama, buildingtension with the repeated bass notes, which sounded trulymenacing. Aniello Desiderio gave the German première of

Toccata & Elegie by Georg Schmitz. TheToccata is fast-moving and has a restlesstension which holds your attention, creat-ing an expectation of something unknown.The Elegy provides that unknown some-thing and a pleasant sense of peace in thismusically articulate and lucid work.

On the following evening Shin-ichiFukuda played a full programme ofBrouwer, Takemitsu and Bach. He beganwith a beautifully atmospheric perfor-mance of Hika – in memoriam Takemitsuby Leo Brouwer, followed by his tran-scription of J. S. Bach’s Cello Suite No. 3.Shin-ichi Fukuda’s phrasing is very musi-cal and he has a strong personal connec-tion with the music as he plays. It was apleasure to hear Brouwer’s Homage toTakemitsu, which was based on the

From left: Fabio Zanon, David Russell, Shin-ichi Fukuda, Bernard Maillot, Alvaro Pierri, Manuel Barrueco and Robert Brightmore.

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KOBLENZ INTERNATIONAL GUITAR FESTIVAL & ACADEMY

CELEBRATES ITS 20TH ANNIVERSARYBy THÉRÈSE WASSILY SABA

Hubert Käppel after his performance of the Henze.

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Concerto da Requiem – Shin-ichi Fukuda premièred thislatest Brouwer Concerto at the Koblenz Festival in 2008.He played Takemitsu’s All in Twilight and then Bach’s CelloSuite No. 6. It was an impressive programme.

The standard of the evening recitals remained highthroughout the week. Alvaro Pierri also gave a very musicalperformance, which seemed to be inspired by the Muses, play-ing Sonata al la Española by Joaquín Rodrigo, Variacionessobre un tema de Fernando Sor by Miguel Llobet, threepieces by Eduardo Sainz de la Maza, Sonatina by LennoxBerkeley and Ricercare by Dusan Bogdanovic. The standingovation at the end heralded many welcome encores.

Manuel Barrueco also received a standing ovation for hisexcellent performance. He played a transcription of cellosuite BWV 1007 by J. S. Bach, five sonatas by Scarlatti,Little Lute Music in Memory of John Dowland written forhim by the Ukrainian composer Dmitri Yanov-Yanovsky, aselection of pieces Albéniz and Granados, and everything heplayed was so musical and refined and with a depth ofunderstanding that made a strong impact.

I particularly enjoyed David Russell’s performance ofSuite No. XIV by Sylvius Leopold Weiss. He managed torecreate a very lute-like sound on the guitar and he playedthe melodies beautifully. Equally beautiful were the fourpieces by François Couperin: La Convalescente, the fast andlight La Sophie with a bell-like resonance, L’Epineuse withits attractive melodies and La Pantomime. He balanced theprogramme with three modern Latin American pieces:Pampero, Barcarola and Jugueteando by Jorge Morel andSandy’s Portrait by Sergio Assad.

Eliot Fisk played the traditional matinee concert onPentecost Monday, which is a public holiday in Germany.Eliot Fisk is a unique musician on the guitar. He gave a spir-ited concert and in the quieter moments one could enjoy hishigh-quality musicianship, however, he would soon move intofull power, which pushed his technique into the ‘out of thecontrol’ sound zone and the tone quality suffered consider-ably. Half of the audience did not return after interval.

As well as the evening recitals there were 4pm recitals,which each lasted one hour and again the quality of perfor-mance was high, with solo recitals given by Goran Krivokapicplaying Bach’s Partita No. 2 in D minor, BWV 1004 withmusical maturity, virtuosic but not ostentatious, and stronglyfelt closeness to this music that almost makes you feel thatBach wrote the piece for him; Marcin Dylla, who gave a pic-turesque performance of In the Woods by Toru Takemitsu,excellent Lieder by Schubert and a beautiful tone quality inValses Poeticos by Granados; Fabio Zanon premièred aSuite written in 1926 by Raymond Moulaert and played lyri-cal pieces by Sor, Moreno Torroba and Mignone; Zoran Dukicplayed an unforgettable Fantasia by Telemann and ended therecital with an exquisitely sensual performance of InviernoPorteño by Piazzolla; and Rafael Aguirre, who won FirstPrize in the Koblenz International Guitar Competition‘Hubert Käppel’ 2010 gave such a musical and powerful per-formance with pieces by Debussy, Albéniz and Paco de Lucía,that he was given a standing ovation.

One of the 4pm concerts given by the young Bulgarianguitarist David Dyakov, who won First Prize in the KoblenzInternational Guitar Competition ‘Hubert Käppel’ in 2011.

From left: Prof. Ingeborg Henzler, Vice-Predident ofKoblenz International Guitar Society e.V., Herbert

Laubach, Geschäftsführer LOTTO-Rhineland Palatinate and his wife, Aniello Desiderio, Dr. Andino, Vito Contento.

Philharmonie, conducted by Leslie Suganandarajah.

Warming up for the Mass at the City-Kirche, a young guitarist, Aniello Desiderio, Judicaël Perroy, Alexander

Ramirez, Gerhard Reichenbach and David Russell.

Alvaro Pierri giving a masterclass.

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Part of that prize is the recording of a CD with KSGExaudio, so his recital was a CD launch-recital of thatrecording called ‘Il Diabolo’. The virtuoso violinist and com-poser Niccolò Paganini was often referred to as ‘Il Diabolo’(the Devil) and David Dyakov recorded four of Paganini’sCaprices: No. 4, No. 9, No. 11 and the well-loved No. 24 andplayed these pieces at a furious speed, just as one wouldexpect from a very young player! The recording and recitalalso included Bach’s Partita No. 2 in D minor, BWV 1004,ending with the impressive Ciaccona.

The ‘Friday Night for Guitar & Orchestra’ concertfeatured two guitarists, Aniello Desiderio and JoaquínClerch, performing with the StaatsorchesterRheinische Philharmonie, conducted by the young SriLankan Leslie Suganandarajah, at the KurfürstlichesSchloss. Joaquín Clerch played his own piece called theConcierto de Cáceres. Clerch’s composition used thefull resources of the orchestra, which created a fortethroughout; the focus of the composition seemed to bemore on making a lot of loud sounds with the orchestrarather than achieving a musical communication. Assuch it was not always easy to hear the guitar partbecause of the overpowering orchestral part, which isnot what one expects from a guitarist/composer.Aniello Desiderio gave the première of the new versionof John McLaughlin’s Europa: Thieves and Poets,which he dedicated to Aniello Desiderio. This work was

sensitively orchestrated and there was a good balancebetween the guitar and the orchestra. The orchestraplayed very well and clearly had a lot of respect for thevisiting conductor, despite his young age. They alsoplayed two overtures by Carl Maria von Weber excel-lently well; one could see that Leslie Suganandarajahhad an understanding and love of this repertoirethrough his conducting.

On Saturday a lunchtime performance of renaissancemusic was given at the Liebfrauenkirche, an ancient churchin central Koblenz, with the guitarist Russell Poyner playinghis arrangements of Mass settings by Alonso Mudurra,interspersed with the choir of the church, ending with theorganist, Manfred Faig playing a work by Johann Pachelbel.The Koblenz Guitar Festival is held every year during thereligious feast of Pentecost, or Pfingsten as it is known inGerman.

To mark the 20th anniversary of the Festival a FestiveMass for Pentecost was held in collaboration with theArnsteiner Patres in the City-Church at the Jesuitenplatzon Sunday 27 May 2012. The Catholic Mass was cele-brated by Pater Martin Königstein, in German, Englishand Spanish to accommodate the international congrega-tion who completely filled the church and flowed out ontothe cobblestoned square of the Jesuitenplatz. The partsof the Mass, the Kyrie eleison, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus andAgnus Dei were sung in Gregorian chant by the Vocal

Ensemble of the Koblenz GuitarAcademy and after each, guitar soloswere performed by David Russell,Aniello Desiderio, GerhardReichenbach, Alexander S. Ramírezand Judicaël Perroy; the young gui-tarists from Junior Guitar Academy,conducted by Günter Schillings, gave anexcellent performance of Weiss’sChaconne arranged for guitar orches-tra, with support from the other JuniorGuitar Academy teachers RussellPoyner and Tobias Kassung. The collec-tion during the Mass went to supportthe ‘ONGD David Russell y MaríaJesús’ charity, which builds water wellsand schools.

The Finals of the Koblenz InternationalGuitar Competition ‘Hubert Käppel’2012 were held at the Kurfürstliches

Prize-giving at Café Hahn, from left: Günter Forsteneichner, flower girl, Georg Schmitz, Konrad Ragossnig, Chia-Wei Lin, Hubert Käppel,

Giuseppe Zinchari, Anton Baranov, Berti Hahn.

David Russell giving a masterclass. Manuel Barrueco giving a masterclass.

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Schloß on Sunday 27 May 2012. The competition winnerswere: First Prize: was not awarded; Second Prize: Chia-WeiLin (Taiwan); and Third Prize: Anton Baranov (Russia). ThePremio Joaquín Rodrigo for the best interpretation of a workby Joaquín Rodrigo was awarded to Giuseppe Zinchiri(Italy). The international jury was headed by Univ.-Prof.Konrad Ragossnig – who celebrated his 80th birthday in May– and also included Hubert Käppel, Judicaël Perroy, AlfredEickholt, Goran Krivokapic, Alexander S. Ramírez, RobertBrightmore, Lucio Matarazzo, Ansgar Krause, GerhardReichenbach, Dale Kavanagh, Max Op den Camp, GünterSchillings, Tobias Kassung and Thérèse Wassily Saba.

The jazz venue Café Hahn and its owner, Berti Hahn, hasbeen involved with the festival from the beginning, hosting

the Sunday evening jazz performances which have includedmany outstanding artists, such as John Abercrombie, PhilipCatherine, Frank Haunschild and the flamenco guitaristGerardo Nuñez. Their programme this year, called ‘20 Yearsof the Koblenz Guitar Festival at Café Hahn’, featured gui-tarists Joscho Stephan and Torsten Goods, Rudi Linges (key-boards), Thomas Kukulies (percussion) and NicoBrandenburg (electric bass). The Prize-giving ceremony forthe Koblenz International Guitar Competition 'HubertKäppel' took place during the interval at Café Hahn.

The list of guest guitarists giving public masterclasses isvery impressive and long: David Russell, Manuel Barrueco,Eliot Fisk, Shin-ichi Fukuda, Alvaro Pierri, GoranKrivokapic, Marcin Dylla, Joaquín Clerch, Fabio Zanon,Judicaël Perroy, Zoran Dukic, Rafael Aguirre, as well asRobert Brightmore, Alexander S. Ramírez, GerhardReichenbach and Ansgar Krause. Aniello Desiderio gave apublic masterclass with the students performing JoaquínRodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez, accompanied by theStaatsorchester Rheinische Philharmonie, conducted byLeslie Suganandarajah. Pavel Shamshura did his final pub-lic examination with the orchestra for the Koblenz GuitarAcademy during the festival.

The flamenco guitarist Rafael Cortés gave a matineerecital in a trio with his son and a percussionist. RafaelCortés has an incredibly fast technique and pleased theenthusiastic audience by playing covers of a number of Pacode Lucía’s most successful pieces.

Many guitar makers exhibited their instruments, including:Michael Wichmann, Gert Petersen, Antonius Müller, KazuoSato, Curt Claus Voigt, Mario Gropp, the Canadian DarylPerry, Jens Towet and Stephan Schlemper. MichaelMacmeeken’s Chanterelle shop was always busy. Other spe-cial visitors at the festival were Bernard Maillot and PhilippeDurand of Savarez and Prof. Thomas Offermann ofD’Addario Strings; both companies support the festival andthe competition.

The next Festival will be from 13–20 May 2013 in thenewly-rebuilt Rhein-Mosel-Halle, the Kurfürstliches Schlossand the halls of the Ehrenbreitstein Fortress.

www.koblenzguitarfestival.deTwitter: @KoblenzGuitFest

Marcin Dylla in concert.

Russell Poyner and the VocalEnsemble of the Liebfrauenkirche.Goran Krivokapic in concert.

Joscho Stephan with Torsten Goods and the AcousticRhythm ensemble at Café Hahn.

Georg Schmitz, Russell Poyner, Tobias Kassung, GünterSchillings and the guitar ensemble of the Junior Academy.