Roth Guitar Duo 10th November 2022 In the splendid setting of the Assembly Room, a hushed audience was held spellbound by the magic of two guitars at Grimsby Town Hall, when the Society presented the Roth Guitar Duo. With something for everyone, partners Emma Smith & Sam Rodwell, performed music from the Baroque to Bad Boy (Toru Takemitsu, 1961),. Opening with Farewell to Stromness (Maxwell-Davies), quiet confidence filled the hall, as the duo assuredly played out these beautiful strains. Serenade in A, by the early 19th century guitarist Carulli, represents the ‘heart of classical guitar’. Strongly imbued with the classical genre of the Beethoven period, Sam & Emma revealed its contrasting moods with good interplay between the parts and marked dynamic variations. The enigmatic Bad Boy, was soothing and nostalgic, offering delightful interactions and harmonisations. The wonderfully performed Sonatina Canonica, Castelnuovo-Tedesco, in three movements reinforced the strong association of the guitar with Spain: romancing the audience through Spanish towns and countryside; a soulful, deeply felt, second section gave way to an exciting fiery invocation of Spain in the finale. The discipline and focus of Sam & Emma came through in a well executed arrangement of Nagoya Guitars, Reich. This fascinating, almost hypnotic minimalist composition is performance on a musical knife edge: each must pluck in the spaces between the others’ notes, resisting the compulsion to synchronise their strokes – giving the music a threatening tension. The first half closed with the brilliantly played Balkan Express, Ivanovic – invoking a train journey from Sarejevo to Athens. The musical diversity of the first half was continued in an equally pleasing second half, opening with the exciting Lo Que Vendre, Piazzolla, followed by Maximo Pujol’s Piazzolla-influenced Tres Piezas de Otono. These two compositions moved the audience to a steamy Argentinian café offering coffee and tango. The moving second scene of the Pujol was a delight to the ear: a doleful melody rose from Sam’s beautifully executed rest-strokes, providing full rich tones against Emma’s perfectly balanced accompaniment, before she too took and returned the lead. The opening of the third movement included some lovely melodic bass-work by Emma; overall, this movement of shifting moods provided complex and wonderful interactions between the guitars. Similarly, the duo brilliantly performed de Falla’s La Vida Breve: Emma’s playing shone in this piece, as her calls were complimented by nicely understated responses from Sam. Sam & Emma’s performance of Marcello’s Concerto for Oboe and Strings was pure joy for the ear. Outstanding was the gracefully realized second movement, Andante Sostenuto; for this writer, ‘the moment’ of the evening. Sam’s expressive melody against Emma’s simple, yet wonderful, chordal accompaniment; both parts swelling and diminishing under great control. A pin-drop would have been heard in the pianissimos. Concluding with a lively Allegro, the Concerto was followed and contrasted by Homecoming, written for Emma & Sam by guitarist & composer Yvonne Bloor. Like a song without words, Homecoming is relaxed, with a sense of the familiar and welcoming. Sam & Emma, who had captured their audience with playing that was confident, yet unassumingly skilful , concluded a wonderful evening with a heartfelt encore, Always Good to Me, also written for them by Bloor. IM