10th June 2012: The Singapore Guitar Quartet plays plays Eine Kleine Nachtmusik by W.A. Mozart

Latest release from their second album, “Of Colors Most Fleeting”, vol. 2.

Comments from the Singapore Guitar Fraternity:

“This is truly marvellous. Just finished listening to Eine Kline Nachtmuzik. SGQ!  You brought about true and genuine “ Mozartian” flair through your fine and meticulous guitaristic rendition of the Eine Kleine Nachtmuzik. Bravo! Will have a listening to your other recordings surely.”

- Michael Gaspar, arranger, conductor and music administrator.

“(Your Mozart) is very impressive. Having performed this song  (with a prime quartet) before, I have to agree it sounds much better with the range afforded by a a-a-p-b quartet. I think this configuration is excellent for classical/baroque music.Will forward the link to Genus. Hopefully it will inspire more to form their own small groups and make music together.”

- Ng Shu Hann, member, Guitaresque Guitar Quartet & Xpose Niibori ensemble.

“I have listened appreciatively to your “Eine kleine Nachtmusik”  recording. It’s quite astonishing to hear the guitars playing that  masterpiece. Years ago I heard it performed live by a saxophone  quartet, also quite successfully. It’s one of those pieces in which  the notes themselves project the music even when it is played in a  transcription. I think your quartet performed it wonderfully, although  for my ears, I prefer the original instruments, having been associated  with string quartets and string orchestras all my life and believe the  natural qualities of those instruments (attack, sustaining, long-note  expression, for examples) convey the music best. On the other hand, I can certainly  see why the guitar and saxophone communities would each want to play  and hear as much Mozart as possible on their own  instruments,particularly for their own enjoyment. So there is much in  your excellent recording to recommend to the guitar world. Warm  congratulations for getting it up on the internet, and I like the  page-turning score that accompanies it.”

- From a composer friend in the United States.

WELL DONE!!!

- From Jan Sarvis, piano teacher, USA.

Robert Luse comments:

If I were to choose a particular work to illustrate the superiority of the alto-alto-prime-bass configuration, it would be the present recording of Mozart’s timeless masterpiece. Put simply, a-a-p-b is the guitar equivalent of that most fundamental instrumental configuration, the string quartet. Apart from being transposed down a fifth, Mozart’s original is here performed unaltered.

And if I were to choose a best technical recording, the present one would also top the list, both as to effective stereo imaging and as a testimony to the felicity and tonal variety achievable on alto guitars. (Mr. Recording Engineer, wherever you are, you were really good!) Recorded at the National University of Singapore in 1991 at one of our final concerts, the performance was possibly our finest. How wonderful that it was preserved!

A digression: What of the alto guitar as seen from a Western perspective? Although the smaller size and closer fret spacing make it better suited to Asian stature, the high frets are no closer than comparable semitones on the violin. As to Western perception that the alto sounds like a mandolin; to me, this is like comparing grapefruits and oranges. Since both instruments are members of the plucked string family, their tone is vaguely similar. But our primary image of articulation on the mandolin is by note reiteration by plectrum. A fairer comparison: pizzicato (plucked), mandolin notes hardly resemble those of the better sustained, mellower alto at all. Another bone of contention: that the alto sounds “plinky” in comparison to the prime. The aim within an instrument family is to complement, rather than duplicate, one another’s tone. So the alto and bass differ from the prime in the same sense as do the violin and ‘cello from the viola.