Guitar recital at the 11th Youngmasters Festival
Award-winning guitarist from this year’s Ida Presti International Guitar Competition, Kacper Dworniczak, held a recital in the Chapel of St. Michael as part of the Youngmasters festival in Samobor on August 25th.
St. Michael’s Chapel has already proved itself as an ideal space for a classical guitar concert: the intimate atmosphere and excellent acoustics enable a great listening experience and create an inspiring atmosphere for the performer. The young guitarist opened the recital with a subtle performance of Bach’s Prelude from Prelude, Fugue and Allegro BWV 998. The young musician followed up the piece with another prelude: the number 4 from Frederic Chopin’s opus 28. Opening the concert with two stylistically different preludes is an interesting idea that was well received by the audience. Chopin’s piano piece works well on the classical guitar, whose sonic capabilities allow the listener a fresh experience of this well-known composition. This was followed by the most extensive work of the program: Manuel Maria Ponce’s Sonata III. The third movement of the sonata left an especially good impression, bringing the necessary contrast of mood after the opening prelude, the serious first and the romantic second movement of the sonata. For the performance of the sonata, Dworniczak was rewarded with a long round of applause. After the sonata, the guitarist performed Hymne a l’amour, a popular French song arranged by Roland Dyens. After the ballad was performed, a loud “Bravo!” was heard from a member of the audience. The guitarist announced the next piece with a charming story of its origin: guitarist-composer Marek Pasieczny decided to write a new composition for Kacper, then an eleven-year-old boy, after a competition. Asked about the nature of the piece he wanted to premiere, the young Dworniczak surprised the composer by ordering a composition that is not a miniature, but a theme with variations! Neo Variations came to be. Dworniczak started performing the piece only a few years later, and played it also for the audience in Samobor. The young Pole continued the recital with the performance of another Polish work. After Chopin and Pasieczny, the guitarist once again brought a touch of his homeland to Samobor with a performance of Polskie drogi by Andrzej Kurylewicz. The recital concluded with Carlo Domeniconi’s Toccata in Blue. He rewarded a long applause with an addition to the program. The performance of a movement from J.S. Bach’s suite for the encore was an unconventional decision, but in the context of the presented program, rich with elements of jazz, blues and film music, the impression was that the choice was justified. Also, the encore gave the program a nice roundness, making the evening both begin and end with Bach’s music.
Kacper Dworniczak left a good impression on the gathered audience. Participants of the Youngmasters summer school and local guitar pupils made a big part of the audience. The repertoire contained a few bold programming decisions, yet it was delivered with subtle expressiveness and refined sound, which made his Croatian debut a great success. A few days later, we heard the young guitarist once again in the performance of the first movement of Sergio Assad’s Concerto Fantasia for guitar and string orchestra at the Youngmasters Gala concert with the Festival Chamber Orchestra.
Author: Petra Stojaković
