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Friday, October 04, 2002

By Peter B. King, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

Manuel Barrueco is beating the drum -- well, make that pounding on his guitar's sound board -- for new music these days, both solo guitar pieces and larger works for guitar and orchestra.

	Manuel Barrueco WHERE: Manchester Craftsmen's Guild. WHEN: 8 p.m. tomorrow TICKETS: $20; students and seniors, $16; GSFA members, $15; children, $10. 412-394-3353 or www.proartstickets.org. ARITIST'S SITE: www.barrueco.com/

Barrueco, who emigrated with his parents from Cuba in 1967 and has gone on to become one of the most respected guitarists of his generation, premiered a concerto by the Cornell University composer Roberto Sierra in Miami two weeks ago. He will play it in Spain, Costa Rica, Indianapolis and Dallas later in the season. In Spain in December, he will record both the new piece and a previous concerto Sierra wrote for him, as well as a new guitar-and-orchestra version of the Estonian Arvo Part's well-known choral work "Fratres," arranged by the composer.

This is quite an accomplishment when one considers that the only guitar concerto performed with any regularity is Rodrigo's "Concierto de Aranjuez," written in the '30s in a conservative, if utterly enchant-ing, style.

"I love playing the piece," Barrueco says of the "Aranjuez." "On the other hand, if I didn't tell you that I wished the guitar repertoire was one where there were more concertos that orchestras wanted to play, I would be lying. For all practical purposes, the Rodrigo is the only one that has really transcended the guitar world. It's a famous piece, period.

"I did here in Baltimore a premiere of a new concerto by Steven Stucky, and there was a chat afterwards with the audience. And this is a very nice piece, but quite contemporary. And one of the questions that I was asked was, "Well, why are you playing this piece? Why aren't you playing the Rodrigo?"

He laughs.

"What I'm trying to say, to be fair, is that orchestras feel a pressure from their audiences to do programming that they will enjoy. And, unfortunately, some of the public hasn't quite caught up to some of the 20th-century writing."

Barrueco is working to change that -- in part, by choosing contemporary pieces that don't trigger fits of nervous coughing in the concert halls. The new guitar concerto by Sierra, for example, titled "Folias," is based on a Spanish dance motif widely quoted by Baroque composers, "La Folia."

Sierra's previous concerto for the guitarist, called "Concierto Barroco," contains, as its title suggests, numerous quotes from Baroque composers.

"They're actually very, very, very easy-to-listen-to pieces," he says. "I mean within a contemporary idiom."

And when Barrueco performs tomorrow night at the Manchester Craftsmen's Guild in a solo recital sponsored by the Guitar Society of Fine Art, he will include five classical- and jazz-infused tangos by the Argentinian Astor Piazzolla, who died in 1992.

Refer to the Piazzolla as "contemporary," and Barrueco replies: "You can call it that, but again, it's all accessible. It's so romantic."

Besides the Piazzolla, he will perform sonatas by Scarlatti and Bach, Rodrigo's "Invocation and Dance" and Albeniz's flamenco-flavored "Leyenda," a guitar "warhorse," as Barrueco puts it.

When he's not on the road, he teaches at Baltimore's Peabody Conservatory of Music, where he studied as an undergrad. He has recorded more than a dozen CDs for EMI and has performed around the world. He appeared on "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood" and even got some prime-time TV exposure in a commercial that had him playing "Leyenda" in the back seat of a speeding Lexus.

Barrueco, who was born in 1952, made his reputation as a guitarist's guitarist -- one for whom a clean, precise and seemingly effortless technique is crucial. But that's not at the expense of a singing line and emotion. In fact, he makes a point of practicing pieces by singing them first.

"All traditional music either sings or dances," he explains. "I think the guitar is a hard instrument to sing with, especially as a classical instrument. Jazz players have a much stronger connection with the guitar as a singing instrument, playing lines, improvising and so on. Whereas the classical guitar is so intricate, in terms of doing accompaniments and melodies at the same time, that sometimes it's very easy to lose the line or what the melody is. I want my melodies to sing. So first I must sing it to see how I want to do it."

Barrueco's knowledge of jazz players is interactive -- he participated in a Guitar Summit tour in the mid-'90s with straight-ahead jazz veteran Kenny Burrell, rock-jazzer Steve Morse and blues player Jorma Kaukonen.

Barrueco recorded with Morse, ex-Police guitarist Andy Summers, and jazz-fusion wizard Al DiMeola on last year's "Nylon and Steel," and will tour with DiMeola this winter. Besides "Nylon and Steel," Barrueco's EMI discs include the "Aranjuez" conducted by Placido Domingo; an adventurous and creative crossover album of tunes by Lennon and McCartney, and an exploration of the music of his homeland on "Cuba!"

"I basically have an open invitation to go play in Cuba by the Cuban government. But I'm not going to go," says the guitarist, who dedicated "Cuba!" to his countrymen who died trying to cross the Florida Straits to the United States.

"In fact, I just received an invitation about a month ago. And my answer was, basically, that the day that I can go to Cuba and express my opinions freely and they will be respected, that day I'll go to Cuba. And that's how I feel."