Music : A Soft, Satisfying Guitar Recital From Sharon Isbin

The superb artistry of Sharon Isbin clearly demonstrates that music can be more powerful when it’s soft and intimate than when it’s loud and grandiose.

In recital, Friday night in Ramo Auditorium at Caltech, Pasadena, the Juilliard-based guitarist treated her audience to a diverse, satisfying program that emphasized a rare suppleness and quiet. A highlight of the Guitar Foundation of America’s 1990 International Guitar Festival, the event drew an appreciative throng of listeners, including many guitarists.

Clad in a shiny, metallic-gold jumper with a black velvet jacket, the attractive, statuesque virtuosa proceeded with uncompromising poise. Her seemingly effortless playing projects an almost hypnotic calm via her mesmerizing finesse.

These elements were especially apparent in an idiomatic transcription by Isbin and her mentor, pianist Rosalyn Tureck, of Bach’s Lute Suite BWV 997 (originally in C minor). The ornate music took on a transcendental quality, every phrase carefully shaped within contrapuntal textures.

Offering a different type of challenge, though nonetheless demanding, Bruce MacCombie’s “Nightshade Rounds” (1979) mixes sensibilities of both aleatoric and minimalist schools. Isbin skillfully maneuvered through the maze of shimmering patterns and repetitions.

In Leo Brouwer’s “El Decameron Negro”(1981)--a tonal, programmatic piece written for her--Isbin mastered the lyrical subtleties lucidly. Her equally deep understanding of Walton’s neo-classic Five Bagatelles provided an intelligent account of the playfully rhythmic pieces.

Virtuosic dances by Agustin Barrios and Antonio Lauro concluded the program. Enthusiastic applause summoned two encores.