Hughes Kolp – Ritmata (2003)

Brazilian-born Edino Krieger is the oldest composer featured here. After early musical studies in Rio de Janeiro, he travelled to the States and studied with Aaron Copland at the Berkshire Music Centre (…). Ritmata, that gives this recital its collective title, is a virtuoso piece and a splendid recital opener by any account.
Takemitsu’s All in Twilight, written for and first performed by Julian Bream, is a suite of four short sketches, mostly slow-moving and meditative, which will surprise no-one familiar with his music. Interestingly enough, however, they are not played as a suite here but rather as interludes between some of the other pieces.
The Belgian composer Armand Coeck has several works for guitar to his credit (…)Constellations is a substantial work alternating meditative and livelier episodes reflecting the feelings and emotions one may experience when looking at a beautiful starry sky at night.
D’Angelo’s Due canzoni lidie, both appropriately exploiting the Lydian mode, are somewhat simpler and lighter, but nonetheless very fine. I imagine that this lovely diptych could (and should) become quite popular with guitarist and audiences alike, were they heard more often. A delightful miniature anyway.
A guitarist himself, Leo Brouwer is particularly well-known and appreciated as a resourceful composer of many works for guitar favoured by guitarists. Paisaje cubana con campanas is a favourite among guitarists and one of his most popular works. It is a minor masterpiece of invention and imagination.
Tristan Murail is a foremost exponent of the so-called French spectral school. HisTellur is, no doubt, the most substantial and the most demanding piece here. (…)This impressive piece is most idiomatically written for the instrument, beautifully inventive and quite appealing and accessible, for all its technical complexity. It is a major addition to the repertoire and the real gem in this collection.
(…) Hughes Kolp’s carefully prepared and subtly varied readings serve the music in the best possible way and are given one of the finest recorded sounds recently heard.