Guitarist Paul Galbraith

UNIQUE ELEGANCE IN GALBRAITH GUITAR RECITAL

Paul Galbraith is a unique guitarist: his instrument is unique, his technique is unique, and his repertoire is unique. This was clearly evident in his Redwood Arts Council performance at Community Church of Sebastopol April 29.

Mr. Galbraith’s guitar has eight strings, two more than the usual six, and one string is lower than the lowest string on the standard six string guitar, and one is higher than the first string on the six string guitar. His guitar is also equipped with an endpin like a cello. Mr.Galbraith holds his guitar like a cello with the endpin resting on a wood resonator box on the floor. The instrument’s fingerboard rests on his shoulder.

The English guitarist played a concert consisting entirely of music composed for instruments other than the guitar. He opened with two rarely-played Mozart compositions - a Fantasie in F for keyboard and an Adagio for glass harmonica. That was followed by a Moderato from Hindemith’s Sonata for Harp, composed in 1939. Mr. Galbraith ended the first half of the concert with a Lute Suite in A that the performer constructed from Bach’s Well Tempered Clavier and other Bach keyboard works. Mr. Galbraith titled it Bach’s Fifth Lute Suite, adding it to the four Lute Suites that Bach himself composed.

After an intermission the guitarist played six pieces that were written for piano by Schumann, and followed with eight movements from Granados’ Valses Poeticos, also written originally for piano. The evening’s last selection was Albeniz’ Castilla, number seven from the Suite Española, Op. 47, composed (again for the piano) in 1898.

Mr. Galbraith’s wonderful transcriptions were also unique in their unforced instrumental elegance and the way they gave the impression to the audience of having been composed only for the guitar. He is an accomplished virtuoso guitarist.