Home  Reviews  Articles  Calendar  Presenters  Add Event     
Recital
THIRTY-THREE PLUS VARIATIONS AND AN OCEAN VIEW
by Terry McNeill
Saturday, March 16, 2024
Choral and Vocal
A ST. JOHN PASSION FOR THE AGES
by Abby Wasserman
Friday, March 8, 2024
Choral and Vocal
SPLENDID SCHUBERT SONGS IN SANET ALLEN RECITAL
by Terry McNeill
Saturday, March 2, 2024
Chamber
SHAW'S MICROFICTIONS HIGHLIGHTS MIRO QUARTET'S SEBASTOPOL CONCERT
by Peter Lert
Friday, March 1, 2024
Chamber
FRY ST. SQ PLAYS A DEMANDING 222 GALLERY CONCERT
by Terry McNeill
Friday, March 1, 2024
Symphony
YOUTH ORCHESTRA CHARMS BIG SPRING LAKE AUDIENCE
by Terry McNeill
Wednesday, February 28, 2024
Chamber
SPIRITUAL CHAMBER MUSIC MARIN TRIO CONCERT
by Abby Wasserman
Sunday, February 25, 2024
Recital
ELEGANT VOCAL MASTERY AT ROSES SIGNATURE RECITAL
by Pamela Hicks Gailey
Sunday, February 25, 2024
Symphony
SOLO BRILLIANCE IN SANTA ROSA SYMPHONY CONCERT
by Terry McNeill
Saturday, February 17, 2024
Opera
OPERA GEMS IN COZY SEBASTOPOL THEATER
by Pamela Hicks Gailey
Friday, February 9, 2024
RECITAL REVIEW
Paul Galbraith / Friday, April 29, 2022
Paul Galbraith, guitar

Guitarist Paul Galbraith

UNIQUE ELEGANCE IN GALBRAITH GUITAR RECITAL

by Gary Digman
Friday, April 29, 2022

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.