Review of the concert at the 2012 Witness
Hilton Art Festival by Keith Millar
I have been a big fan
of Cape Town guitarist James Grace since I saw him play with the KwaZulu-Natal
Philharmonic Orchestra a few years ago.
I subsequently bought
his CD, Granada, and It
fast became one of my favourite albums to listen to while driving long
distances. The serene Spanish music soothes the soul and settles the nerves,
and seems to shorten the distance.
Nothing I heard at
this concert at the Witness Hilton Arts Festival detracted from my fondness and
admiration for the guitar playing of James Grace. In a concert of mainly
contemporary music James produced a sublime performance of mesmerising skill
and beauty.
The concert was held
in the Art Block at Hilton College. This venue is an old converted workshop and,
although fairly rustic, worked well for an intimate show such as this as the
performer sits very close to the audience.
Grace explained that
the theme for his concert was love and emotions, and started off with two standards,
Let There Be Love and Just The Way You Are. Norah Jones with
her simple and beautiful style is one of James’s favourite
artists and he played solo guitar
adaptations of three of her songs, Come
Away with Me, I Don’t Know Why
and The Nearness Of You. This was
followed by Abdulla Ibrahim’s Wedding
and, much to the audience’s pleasure, a medley of Beatles songs to celebrate
the 50th anniversary since they recorded their first hit Love Me Do.
The final two items on
the programme were the exquisite Granada
by Isaac Albeniz and Recuerdos de la
Alhambra by Francisco Tarrega. The latter not been played so before the
audience received a brief lesson in how to play the tremolo effect required in
the music. Yeah. Sure. Now we all know how to do it!
All in all, this was a
breathtaking and captivating concert performed by South Africa’s foremost
classical guitarist. – Keith Millar
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