Alexandre Tansman - Complete Works for Solo Guitar Vol.1

Alexandre TANSMAN (1897–1986) 

Guitar Solo Works (Complete) Vol.1

3 danze da In modo polonico

Cavatine

Mazurka

Quattro tempi di mazurka

Suite in modo polonico

Andrea De Vitis (Guitar)

Released 09/2019

It is with great pleasure that I find myself writing about a recently-released CD dedicated to an important composer like Alexandre Tansman and masterfully performed by a guitarist who is no longer just a promising musician but, instead, has been a reality in the world of guitar for several years now: Andrea De Vitis. An award-winning guitarist at countless competitions, he performs worldwide during the major concert seasons and is distinguishing himself through his great interpretative talent and sophistication.

In this CD, De Vitis has challenged himself with music that is extremely fascinating and, at the same time, complex and insidious.

Tansman’s work is both famous (if we consider works such as the Cavatina, Danza pomposa, or the Suite in Modo Polonico) and unfamiliar, if we look instead at his recently-published posthumous works. I believe that performing Tansman’s music is always difficult and requires a certain amount of courage, or lucid madness.

Like the Colomber in Dino Buzzati’s famous short story, we all flee from the music of the great authors because it represents - and forces us to confront - our most intimate fears; it calls for remarkable respect and humility, combined with a solid awareness of one’s abilities.

All this can already be noted at the first listening of this splendid CD, in which the Italian guitarist performs with his hallmark talent.

The aspect I would like to consider most closely regards De Vitis’ analysis of the materials at hand.

De Vitis’ reconstruction and research of Tansman’s opus will prove to be highly important in years to come. The CD begins with three pieces which, to the best of my knowledge, have never been published before and are recorded here for the first time: Gaillarde, Dumka, and Danse des Haydouks. Tansman had intended these three pieces to be part of his Suite in Modo Polonico, or better, of the work entitled In modo Polonico pour guitare, but they were later eliminated by Andrès Segovia.

De Vitis established the order in which he performs them here and they almost seem to constitute a small suite on their own, thanks to their different and contrasting nature which is rendered with remarkable brilliance and the same great sensitivity reserved for Dumka.

The CD continues with the Cavatina, which is followed by Danza Pomposa, a piece which, on a formal level, stands apart but is rightfully inserted at the end: Segovia considered this work the Cavatina’s finale and the Spanish maestro performed it thus.

The Pièce brèves pour guitare are a group of short and highly interesting pieces which, unfortunately, are rarely performed, perhaps because they hide remarkable technical and interpretative pitfalls. According to F. Zigante, who curated the CD’s booklet, these pieces were written between 1965 and 1968; they feature many stylistic elements which are similar to his Hommage à Chopin and to a number of pieces of the Suite in modo Polonico. Here, too, De Vitis demonstrates remarkable artistic maturity: his reading of the Berceuse - boîte à musique is, quite simply, magnificent.

The Hommage à Lech Walesa, from 1982, the last piece Tansman wrote for guitar, has a broader scope than the Pièces brèves and maintains the CD’s very high interpretative level.

The five mazurkas that follow have an entirely different genesis. The first mazurka, dated 1925, is the first piece Tansman wrote and, as the primigenial source, reveals many typical elements of the Polish composer’s writing style: pedals with open strings, accompanied melody, successions of triads, along with a great luminosity of this first work’s musical ideas.

Instead, the tone becomes darker and more noir in the later mazurkas, swaying between moments of great melancholy and obsessive chord progressions which almost never truly project the listener into an optimistic and luminous listening experience.

It is in this type of composition that the listener can appreciate De Vitis’ outstanding internalization of these works, his willingness to emotionally enter a musical world which can only be explored if one is endowed with a special interior compass: an instinct which, on an almost irrational level, can help understand which timber to use, the message to transmit to the listener, the correct tempo, even when the composer’s indications seem almost misleading. For instance, the third mazurka’s indication “allegro ma non troppo.”

The CD concludes with Tansman’s original version of his Suite in modo Polonico, in which small variations compared to Segovia’s rendering can be noted.

This interpretation, too, is of the highest quality, with a clear counterpoint, a very sweet sound which nonetheless has a strong personality, and uncommon sophistication - as sophisticated as De Vitis’ entire performance of this magnificent music. 

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