Assad Brothers, Ever in Tune With One Another

If you are going to give a program of character pieces, you’d better bring lots of musical personality to the table. Brazilian guitarists Sergio and Odair Assad did just that Friday night at UCLA’s Schoenberg Hall, lavishing abundant resources of imagination and skill on a varied agenda, much of it recycled from the duo’s recordings and other recent area performances.

For zesty charm, rhythmic point and a Gallic spin on things Brazilian, there was Sergio’s deft arrangement of Milhaud’s little “Scaramouche” suite. The Assads have a knack for making slender music sound substantial, or at least hold attention consistently, and “Scaramouche” has seldom swaggered to better effect.

Three dances by Leo Brouwer--recently recomposed for the duo--allowed them the chance to work with spikier material, abstracting Afro-Cuban essences with intense verve. The brothers have been playing together now for 35 years, Sergio announced, and it shows in effortless ensemble interaction. The dynamic range is wide in an Assad interpretation, the lines pliable but never slack, and the core energies of each piece clearly identified and directed.

The Assads use timbre and touch as thematic elements rather than mere decoration, unifying and focusing five of the scenes from Federico Moreno Torroba’s “Estampas” with a graceful and intelligent perspective. Carried to an out-of-style extreme, as in Sergio’s adaptation of four of Rameau’s “Pieces de Clavecin,” the approach can sound fussy, however, impeding rather than enhancing momentum.

A trio of works each from Astor Piazzolla and Egberto Gismonti again brought Sergio’s sympathetic gifts as an arranger into relief, as well as the duo’s impressive technical abilities. A blithe dance by Ernesto Nazareth was the lone encore.