An afternoon of classical guitar with Kianush Robeson at Blacklands Church

Blacklands Church hosted an afternoon of classical guitar music with Kianush Robeson on 15 June. The programme was dedicated mainly to Andrés Segovia (1893-1987), who dominated the field of classical guitar for most of the last century, before closing with a work written for Julian Bream. In appreciative attendance was Stewart Rayment, who also took the photos.

Graduating with a 1st class honours degree from the Royal Welsh College of Music in 2018, Kianush studied with John Mills, who had himself studied with Segovia; continuity is important in the development of music, the innovations passed on and enhanced from one musician to another.

Kianush opened explaining the fingering techniques Segovia brought to guitar music and the impact that this had on the composers commissioned by him. The guitar had been largely ignored in the classical repertoire prior to his career, and his commissions went hand-in-hand with technical developments in the instrument itself, which became louder and more reliable, thanks for  example to the use of nylon strings.

In Mario Castelnouvo Tedesco’s Tonadilla (On the Name of Andrés Segovia), the alphabet assigned to the notes is used to spell out the name of Andrés Segovia. Tedesco (1895-1968) met Segovia in 1932, before the composer had to flee Fascist Italy, and the guitarist would describe him as an “incorruptible servant of artistic truth”.

Kianush followed with a sonatina written in 1924 by Federico Moreno Torroba (1891-1987) and two works by Segovia himself, Estudio Sin Luz (to José Rubio), the luthier, and Rembranza to Olga. The former, ‘Study without Light,’ shows the guitarist influenced by the work of his collaborating composer Manuel Ponce, while Olga Praguer Coelho (1909-2008) was a Brazilian singer and guitarist and partner of Segovia over many years.

The set closed with Lennox Berkeley’s (1895-1968) Sonatina, written for Julian Bream and something of a transitional work from traditional forms towards atonality (with which Segovia would have nothing to do). Like Tedesco’s opening piece, it moves from a sonata to a lively rondo.

A short encore followed, one of Ponce’s E major Preludes, commissioned by Segovia for his students, but rather tricky… the relationship had its ups and downs. Not so the concert, which was definitely on the up!

Kianush Robeson will be performing at St. Barnabas church, Bexhill, on 6 July and St. Mary’s, Battle, on 19 July, both at 3pm.

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