From: wjin@cs.uh.edu (W. Woody Jin)
Subject: Re: Re:Williams and the Romeros
Organization: University of Houston
Date: Tue, 10 Nov 1992 07:47:03 GMT

In article <1992Nov9.173351.7556@cerritos.edu> radams@cerritos.edu writes:
>
>You make an excellent point. How could I know if Angel and Pepe are faster
>than Williams if Williams simply chooses to play slower for musical reasons.
>The answer is subjective. 

Try Julian and John's First Duet Album. 'Suite for Two Guitars', 'Duo II',
'L'Encouragement' are pieces which intermediate players can play.
Whenever I hear those pieces, they amaze me not with speed, but with
their musicality. How could they imagine such expressions ? How could they
make such beautiful sound ?  Nevertheless, they never fall into cheap
melancholinism.  When I listen to those pieces, they amuse me with their
music, and on the other hand, they deprive me of hope (Gees, I can never
make such sound).


>But how do you know that Angel and Pepe are also
>not holding back and not playing nearly as fast as they could? A friend of mine
>was at a get together (at I think Pepe's house) and Pepe was playing Estudio
>Brillante of Tarrega very fast and an observer wondered aloud how much faster
>Pepe could play the piece. Pepe then stepped it up a several notches so that it
>was unrecognizable as we know it but nevertheless clean and effortless.  The
>point is that Angel and Pepe also have musical considerations when they perform
>and do not play fast for speed's sake, and could play much faster if they
>wanted to.  I heard a live concert of Pepe's that was not going very well.
>After the printed program, he came out and apologized and said he had the
>flue that evening and said he would allow only one encore. 

Romeros are good musicians, and I like them also.
But try John Williams's Villa Lobos Prelude No.2.
The middle part is very fast arpeggio.  John plays very fast with
every note VERY clear and even, and with musicality of course. 
(This depresses me also. Whenever I play No.2, I feel, "Gees, what am
I playing ?" )
If I exaggerate a little bit ( 8-) ), I feel that his arpeggio (Al Aire) is
more clear and louder than many other players' Apoyando.

>
>> fast. The points I am making are that 1) there is much more to speed than 
>> scales, 2) a lot of people play fast but they do not play cleanly 3) the
>> speed at Williams or Mikulka or Barrueco or even Marcel Kayath play is
>> determined not so much by physical ability, but by musical considerations.
>> On these grounds I maintain that your claim that the Romeros can play faster
>> than anyone else, is at best unprovable.
>
>I agree with your criteria. With all due respect to Pepe and Angel, they are
>both as clean as clean can be so they are not fast at the expense of clean
>playing. 

I think that it depends on their major repatoirs.
One player cannot play all the music best.  You cannot compare two good
musicians by just some pieces they are playing. Romero's major repatoir
includes Rodrigo.  John plays Bach well.  I don't think that it is
fair  to compare two musicians with Aranjuez (for example).

-- 
____   ____  ____ ____________________________________ (___) _________________
|  |   |  |  |  |  W. Woody Jin (wjin@cs.uh.edu)       (o o)      Moo.... 
|  |   |  |__|  |  PhD Student. Research Asst.  o=======\ /  I'm  a Cow Lover.
|  |   |        |  Dept. of Computer Science   / |     ||O   My wife  was born
\  |---|  |--|  |  University of Houston      `  ||'---||    in Cow year. Mooo
 \____/|__|  |__| _______________________________^^    ^^_____________________

Newsgroups: rec.music.classical.guitar