https://open.spotify.com/album/2uAxbNxM4LOVAf9FF76bhP?si=1bpsRIEfRWmU0CP_Z01dDg
This talented composer has written a full set of nine pieces based on the planets, most of which I have seen in the foregoing months. This latest offering begins with a table consisting of no less than ten symbols, all being percussive effects of various sorts and in various places on the guitar. As the whole piece is littered with them you have to have a very good memory to incorporate them seamlessly into the piece, but providing you can do that, you have overcome one of the largest hurdles in this piece although the very percussive nature of the actual musical concept might also cause any players to pale at the complexities. It takes a full 32 bars of frenetic percussion before any real theme appears although even here the music is constantly interwoven with the percussive effects. with both LH and RH fingers and thumbs being used to produce them. There follows a momentary respite with a strange section of 32 bars consisting entirely of solo note crotchets grouped into fours before the rhythmic ideas re-emerge and build to an impressively orgiastic final section with a coda that proverbially slams the door in your face and allows no more argument. I am sure that players able to cope with the many complexities of this piece will make it sound very convincing and exciting to hear.
Chris Dumigan (Classical Guitar Magazine)
