Music Reviews : Angel Romero Prevails in Ambassador Guitar Series

With the right combination of aggressive virtuosity and careful expressiveness, guitarist Angel Romero prevailed over nine works and an encore Wednesday evening at Ambassador Auditorium, Pasadena. The second event of Ambassador’s guitar series, Romero’s program offered a sophisticated array of Spanish favorites and showpieces.

A comprehensive performance of his ambitious, flamboyant “Suite Espanola” arrangement marked a high point. Originally written for a Baroque guitar, the 13 short dance pieces from Gaspar Sanz’s collection found the sixth string tuned down to D and other conscious anachronisms of style: a section which faded al niente at the end of “Torneo,” octave displacements in which some passages hovered in the highest range of the instrument, melodies of artificial harmonics and a flashy, often shifting dynamic range--all convenient, flattering vehicles for Romero’s soaring technique.

The lofty mix of sul ponticello and masterfully controlled vibrato made Yuquijiro Yocoh’s “Theme and Variations on the Japanese Folksong ‘Sakura’ ” sound like the plucking and strumming of a koto. Although the starkly tonal composition proved not very adventuresome in its exploration of variation form, Romero’s thoughtful undertaking was nonetheless fascinating and impressive.

Among Romero’s idiomatic, tasteful transcriptions of piano pieces, Erik Satie’s familiar “Gymnopedie No. 1” emerged as the most obvious crowd-pleaser. Two common pieces which easily fit the instrument--Isaac Albeniz’s “Leyenda” and Enrique Granados’ “Danza Espanola No. 5”--gave Romero a chance to show off.

But equally appreciated were sensitive deliveries of the routine but virtuosic passages in Celedonio (Angel’s father) Romero’s five-part “Suite Andaluza”--especially the masterfully executed “Fantasia,” which brought the audience to its feet--and the idyllic, simple Romanticism of “Burgalesa” by Federico Moreno Torroba.