NEWS
 


CONCERTS in 2012
Mai 2012
Guitar ensemble from Munich visits Cuba

Münchner Gitarren-Ensemble   Münchner Gitarren-Ensemble   Jonathan Goldberg


The festival “Cuba Disco” is the main event for Latin American music. Its meaning for the music in that region can be compared to the Grammy Awards in the USA, the San Remo festival in Italy or the Echo awards in Germany.

The event “Cuba Disco” turns Havana into one great celebration for one week. Visitors can get the impression of Havana being one top-class and multifaceted concert hall during that time. This year the focus of the festival will be guitar music, comprising Cuban musicians like Compay Segundo. The motto “The City of 1000 Strings” can be seen as a homage to Leo Brouwer, of of the best contemporary Cuban guitar players and composers. Different guitarists from all over the world were invited to honor his work, one of them Walter Abt with his ensemble Munich Guitars.

As a composer and head of the ensemble, the guitarist Walter Abt from Munich (Germany) has by founding Munich Guitars created a platform to present the talent of his ambitious guitar students in front of a wide audience. “The invitation is not only a great honor but also a real highlight for us”, says Abt, “and what is even better is that there has been organized a whole tour for us, which will lead us to Santiago de Cuba and Havana. And what musician can say about himself that he has been on tour in Cuba? I only know a few”, he explains.

As a special highlight, the group from Munich will perform together with Leo Brouwer and the Cuban Symphonical Orchestra. That concert will include Abt’s ensemble performing Brouwer’s famous composition “The Sky, the Air and a Smile”.  Additionally, the opening gala of “Cuba Disco” will contain the Cuban Symphonical Orchestra “Orquestra Nacional de Cuba” playing “Concerto del Benaco”, a guitar concert composed by Walter Abt who will conduct the performance. As a soloist, the “Concerto del Benaco” will be played by one of Abt’s students Jonathan Goldberg who has recently won the first prize in the most important German competition for young musicians, “Jugend musiziert” (see also: www.walter-abt.de).

Support for this cultural joint venture comes from the Goethe-Institut and the Bavarian Ministry for Research, Science and Arts.
 

Goethe Institut    Auswärtiges Amt  
       

Further information about  "Cuba Disco 2012":
or: repeatingislands.com/2012/03/31/musicians-from-12-countries-to-participate-in-cubadisco-2012/

To complete the project, a Cuban Ensemble is invited for concerts and workshops in Germany in November 2012:

UN RECORRIDO POR CUBA Y SUS RITMOS
A TRAVÉS DE LA MÚSICA
DEL GUITARRISTA Y COMPOSITOR CUBANO EDUARDO MARTÍN.
“A musical journey through Cuba and its rhythms”
presented by the Cuban guitar player Eduardo Martín and his ensemble

The program is promising: The ensemble of five virtuosic musicians, who have all received a widespread education from Classic to Jazz Music, is outstanding for its interpretation of Cuban Music. Cuban culture is highly influenced by West Africa, which enrooted deep in Cuban tradition. This music enthuses with its rhythmical diversity und its conveyed eloquence, mixed with contemporary developments in Cuba’s musical culture.


26.07.2012
Bozen, Schloss Runkelstein
GUITAR NIGHT
Walter Abt & Nicola Puglielli, Lancy & Bobby Falta
JAZZ MEETS WORLDMUSIC
28.10.2012
 Gasteig München, Kleiner Konzertsaal 20 Uhr
Walter Abt & Munich Guitars
„The City of 1000 Strings“
Nov. 2012
Joint-Venture CONCERTS

Walter Abt & Ensemble Eduardo Martin (Kuba)

6.11. Gesprächskonzert, Bayerische Musikakademie Marktoberdorf, 19 Uhr
7.11. Workshop / Gesprächskonzert, Instituto Cervantes München, 18 Uhr
8.11. Saitensprünge Bad Aibling




Baroque Suites

Baroque Suites

The pieces published in this volume are some of the most beautiful masterpieces by four famous Baroque lute players who created their own composition style.

I have developed a particular guitar tuning for this type of music, which allows for playing pieces written for the lute imitating the lute fingering. This type of fingering makes it easy to move the left hand on the handle and makes the most of the guitar’s resonance.

The different resonance ratio of the instrument enables the music for Baroque lute to be easily played on the guitar with a natural and authentic sound.
This tuning recalls the real handle grip and the way of fretting strings of the compositions for lute, which reduces notably the difficulty level.



BWV 995 LUTE suite No.3 g-MINOR J.S. Bach  FOR GUITAR


BWV 995

Bach's famous lute suite BWV 995 in G minor has frequently been arranged for guitar. However, previous versions have always demanded an extremely high level of technical ability on the part of the guitarist in order to be able to perform it. Awkward "fingerbreaker" passages and cross fingerings made the suite a real challenge even for advanced players.

With the help of the Baroque Tuning, where the 1st and 3rd strings are retuned to D4 and F#3 respectively, it's possible to make much greater use of open strings and first position fingerings. These reduce the degree of technical difficulty enormously and so make this outstanding example of Bach's work accessible to a far larger circle of players. Furthermore, the use of tablature helps the player get orientated more quickly.

What are the advantages of the Baroque Tuning?
Anyone who has listened to early music compositions played on the lute or the vihuela will miss the fine, overtone-rich sound of these polychoral instruments when the same pieces are played on the guitar.





MOZART ON GUITAR?

As everyone knows, foolhardy, sometimes bizarre and desperate arrangements of famous works are written for guitar, just to enhance the repertoire of this instrument or to show in vain complacency the versatility of the guitar.

In the classical era there are few authentic and important composers that the guitar can refer to. It was Fernando Sor who probably wrote the best work of his period: the variations on a theme of  Mozart´s Magic Flute.

When I heard the Piano Concerto No. 23 in A major (K 488) for the first time, I immediately knew that the piano part would sound perfectly well on the guitar. On the one hand because it is written in the key of A major - by the way the adagio is Mozart´s only one in F sharp minor - and on the other hand - in spite of the virtuosity of the piano part - because of  the chamber music cast with string orchestra and 5 woodwinds, containing 2 clarinets instead of oboes and the missing kettledrums and trumpets, which would dynamically suppress the guitar.

The second movement, in ternary form, is impassioned and somewhat operatic in tone. On the guitar the adagio sounds as authentic as it would have been scored by the Maestro himself! The biggest problem in arranging consists of the Alberti-Basses in the left hand on the piano and the overlaying fast scales in the right hand. As everyone knows there is a solution for every problem, you just have to find it.

I am looking forward to the premiere at the festival "toujours Mozart" in Magdeburg 2011, where one of Mozart´s most famous piano concertos will be presented for guitar and orchestra for the first time.

Concerto in A major KV 488, II. Adagio, Score: click


 

GUITARS, DANCE AND SUN
Current reviews of the the Portugal tour: click

 

DAKAR CONCERT AND WORKSHOP
Invitation of the Goethe Institut for his 2010 concert tour to the Cap Verde Islands and Senegal: click

 

WALTER ABT & SOL Y SOMBRA ON STRINGS 2009
Online article from the Tegernsee Magazin: click

 

A MIRROR FOR GLOBAL ADAPTABILITY AND CROSS-CULTURAL FEATURES OF CONTEMPORARY MUSIC
Review of the premiere of "Between Strings & Matches" in the Munich Gasteig Concert Hall: click