Strathearn Music Society Review – Roth Guitar Duo
Wed 23rd October 2024
Once upon a time two young guitarists named Sam Rodwell and Emma Smith met whilst students, and a musical partnership called ROTH was formed. Ten years later they are now Mr and Mrs Rodwell but ROTH remains the title for their performing teamwork. Unsurprisingly there is a closeness and connection when they play together and it comes across as relaxed and purposeful too.
In the rather cavernous surroundings of the main assembly hall in the Strathearn Community Campus they still succeeded in creating an intimate ambience where it was hard to imagine any dissent or raised voices during their concert last Wednesday. It was an added pleasure to have two performers both as adept in adding clear and succinct spoken introductions and audience communication to their musical skills.
The guitar will always have an inevitable Spanish and South American flavour to it, and this was provided by characteristic pieces from Albeniz, De Falla and Máximo Pujol, whose interpretations of the instrument’s homeland invoked variously sultry, autumnal and fiery moods. A lot of atmosphere here, compressed into a subtly graded palette of tonal colour and artistic feeling.
Going on to demonstrate the breadth of repertoire available to two guitars, Sam and Emma included a nod to the Classical period in the form of a delightful Serenade by Ferdinando Carulli, and the full span of the 20th century was well represented by Ravel (an arrangement of movements from his Piano Sonatine), Peter Maxwell Davies (his ever-popular Farewell to Stromness), Steve Reich (Nagoya Guitars – called Nagoya Marimbas in its percussion original) and Bosnian composer Vojislav Ivanovic (Balkan Express, infused with “indescribably delicious” elements of jazz and popular style).
These perfectly-paired duettists concluded with two immediately attractive yet individual pieces written specifically for them by their contemporaries Mark Houghton and Yvonne Bloor. All in all, despite the challenges posed by their surroundings, the Roth Duo’s Concert in Crieff was a delightful and finely focussed performance and further testament to the listener-friendly programme planning of the Strathearn Music Society.
