MUSIC REVIEW : TWO ROMEROS IN PASADENA RECITAL

The printed program promised the Duo Romeros, but the actual event at Ambassador Auditorium on Wednesday turned out to be something akin to the Pepe Romero Show. Not that any in the large audience seemed to mind--Pepe has always displayed more flash and fire on the guitar than his competent duo-mate, Celin.

A case of the flu, according to Pepe, forced Celin to skip his solo set, leaving him backstage during Pepe’s star turns, or on stage for his modest chores of providing the simplistic accompaniment usually relegated to him in ensemble.

As Celin dutifully oompahed along, Pepe played the dickens out of an endless procession of fluffy crowd-pleasers by such musical giants as Diabelli and Giuliani, or shallow, often clumsy transcriptions of piano pieces by Granados.

Later in the evening, Pepe smilingly apologized to the audience for his brother’s indisposition. “I will play his solos,” he said.

Baloney. Instead of the scheduled collection of modest ditties by Villa-Lobos, Torroba and Albeniz, Pepe chose to substitute more demanding works by the latter two composers. This gave him a total of three solo sets--about one too many.

Eight longish solo Spanish pieces (from Sor to Tarrega to Albeniz) can, in the course of an evening, take their toll--as the ever-dwindling audience attested. Pepe’s often glossy approach to the music did not help: A lightning-fast reading of Sor’s “Magic Flute” Variations, for instance, sacrificed phrasing and color for the sake of speed. And his choice of played-to-death repertory--the Sor work, Tarrega’s “Recuerdos de la Alhambra” and Albeniz’s “Leyenda”--similarly failed to inspire.