Martha Masters, "Viaggio in Italia," GSP Recordings, 2006
Rosewood Review, Classical Guitar Magazine
By Andrew Hull
Congratulations to Martha Masters.
Her new disc, Viaggio in Italio , came as a welcome relief from the cataloguing efforts of so many other recent recordings wherein listening to a CD became not a pleasure but an academic exercise.  So much of what is published these days involves exhausting the output of a given composer.  These mass graves of artistic achievement tend not to glorify, but to make anonymous both artist and composer.  In such pursuits the only one glorified is the publishing company who is lauded not for its quality, but its body count.

It was nice to see the artist looking out at me from the cover and inside a disc filled with Ms. Masters' vast dynamic palette and gorgeous tone.  Not one to get in the way of the composers, she brings a unique light to their work.  Thus, the recording becomes a verdict on the quality of the composers.

To this end, the highlights of the disc are the three Scarlatti sonatas (K. 277, 208 and 178) and the composition by Simone Iannerelli, Variazioni – en Memoire de S. Rachmaninoff , which concludes the CD.  Many have recorded K. 208 with its familiar, rising melody.  What Ms. Masters does with the sonata, though, is wholely new.  The ornamentation on the second pass through both sections enhances the music without getting in the way.  For those looking for a new way to prepare a familiar staple, with just the right amount of spice, here you have it.  Take dictation and put it in your competition program. (the program notes state that the edition is Barrueco's – but the ornamentation is not).  A listen to this recording could well put Scarlatti's music, as played on the guitar, in a new light.  Too often, one simply makes the repeat without ornamentation, a necessity on the quicker sonatas, but an absolute travesty on the slow movements.  Ms. Masters shows that good taste and careful study can allow the performer to enhance a great composition and shine a new light on an old masterpiece.

Iannarelli's composition after Rachmaninoff is the ‘find' of the disc.  A young composer (b. 1970) – read: reachable, commissionable – gives us a latter-day, Italianate Colletici Intim .  A series of variations, the piece trades in sparkling harmonic language and its thematic material is at once rhapsodic and foreboding – particularly the repeated-note motive that ties the composition together.  Ms. Masters opens the door to this pyrotechnic treasure and at well over ten minutes in length, the piece offers the type of long-term development that one hears in Asencio's magnificent composition.  A relief it is that pieces like this are still being written in an age where the humanism and intellectualism that it represents are assailed on all sides by both disinterest and disdain.

In sharp contrast to these works are pieces by Giuliani and Regondi.  Fine performances and elevated personages do not always make for fulfilling listening.  Masters plays the Rossiniana and the the two Regondi etudes with aplomb and vigor, but the compositions do not rise to the level of the others, above mentioned, on the disc.  Apologists for both composers tell us of their greatness and necessity in our canon – but would anyone put them in the class with Scarlatti?  Giuliani, who never wrote a good development section (if at all), pays little attention to the types of thematic and key relations that make for satisfying high-classical writing.  He's given us the musical equivalent of television – a somewhat diverting past-time we can dip in and out of without any need to establish context which provides the perfect accompaniment to cleaning house, working out or paying bills.  Again, the apologists will state that this was the purpose of such salon music at the time – it was a diversion and no one had any illusions about its musical value.  To which I say - Exactly!

Regondi's etudes make a case for the greatness of Sor's music if only because Sor had the good sense to be brief.  Again, Regondi seems more concerned with passing time than making any great musical statement.  Granted, these are etudes and one needn't expect Chopin, but if that be the case, then brevity should be the rule.  Simply because these composers were our only representatives at a time of great musical achievement does not mean we need pay undo attention to their mediocre accomplishments.  Too often we laud mediocrity because it is all we have to praise.  That is not our job.  Finding the great works and amplifying them is.

Kudos to Ms. Masters for doing just that.
© Timothy Smith

Martha Masters, "Viaggio in Italia," GSP Recordings
Guitare Classique , February - April 2007
In listening to this aesthetic CD, one can count how much the sonorous aesthetics of the guitar has advanced. What is made of many parts, establishes a variation of timber, the general sonority is very brilliant, almost lasting in some attacks. One sometimes has the impression, as in the three sonatas of Scarlatti, of hearing an instrument nearer to the piano than of the guitar. One appreciates nevertheless the Colloquio con Segovia by Gilardino or the very beautiful phrasing and agreeable quality of Iannarelli's Variazioni. The Giuliani, in spite of an irreproachable virtuosity, seems on the other hand a little dry. A technically irreproachable recording and an expressivity unequaled.

Martha Masters, "Viaggio in Italia," GSP Recordings
Musicweb International , January 2007
By Zane Turner
Musicians’ websites are a little like personal resumés: they contain nothing negative from those offering performance testimonials! Visiting the website of Martha Masters, the guitarist featured on the review disc, one is presented with eighteen statements of ‘critical acclaim.’ From authoritative sources such as Classical Guitar and Guitar Review, they contain a plethora of superlatives.

Martha Master began her guitar studies at the age of six and rather reverently refers to her first teacher, Jim McCutcheon, as ‘a man with a gift for teaching children’. She then studied with composer/teacher Brian Head. At the Peabody Conservatory Martha studied with Manuel Barrueco, gaining both Bachelor and Master of Music degrees. Studying with Scott Tennant at the University of Southern California she completed the Doctor of Musical Arts degree. In October 2000 she won first prize in the Guitar Foundation of America (GFA) International Solo Competition. In November of that same year Martha also won the Andrès Segovia International Guitar Competition in Linares, Spain, and was a finalist in the Alexandre Tansman International Competition of Musical Personalities in Lodz, Poland. Martha’s very busy schedule includes extensive masterclass/festival teaching and annual teaching at the National Guitar Workshop Classical Summit in Connecticut. In addition she heads the guitar programme at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles.

The review disc is her sixth commercial recording. There are too two discrete CDs and one DVD; she appears with another guitarist on a 2CD Naxos compilation and also on a DVD with past GFA winners. Thematically centred on Italy, the review programme is balanced and well chosen. There is both old and new music and without slavish adherence to the theme, a composition by non-Italian Bryan Johanson, Ciaccona (7) is included. Of the composers represented, Simone Iannarelli and Bryan Johanson are less familiar to listeners.

Simone Iannarelli (b.1970), a guitarist-composer, is currently Professor of Guitar at the University of Colima, Mexico. Born in Rome, he completed his initial guitar studies in Italy before moving to Paris; there he studied with Roland Dyens. The programme item by Iannarelli is an uninterrupted series of variations written in the memory of Sergei Rachmaninoff. Bryan Johanson (b.1951) is an American classical guitarist-composer. He studied composition with Charles Jones and William Bolcom. His guitar tutelage includes Christopher Parkening, Michael Lorimer and Alirio Diaz. Johanson uses the structure of the Baroque Ciaccona - a set of uninterrupted variations - for quite a modern construction to create ‘something new out of something old’.

Immediately conspicuous is the stunning overall sound quality of the review disc. While sonically it is well recorded, the sound of the guitar is exceptional. A number of variables may contribute to this: the venue, recording techniques, quality of the instrument and player capability.

To negate the possibility of aural illusion I revisited two favoured recordings that feature fine instruments and sonic excellence: Naxos 8.557598 on which Marco Tamayo uses a radially braced instrument by Simon Marty and EMI Classics 0946 3 70714 2 7 featuring a Greg Smallman, lattice-braced guitar played by Xue Fei Yang. With the kind assistance of Martha Masters I am able to identify the instrument she uses on the review disc as a 2001 spruce and Brazilian rosewood guitar by Mariano Tezanos and Gregorio Perez. Both luthiers were part of the Jose Ramirez III workshop team but in 1991 decided to leave and build instruments under the Tenazos-Perez label; that association continued until recently. This is a powerful instrument, well-balanced, with great clarity, but also mellowness. The first string has an attribute that all guitarist covet - a singing quality throughout its entire register that can endow a melodic line with added dimensions of grace and beauty. This is particularly evident in the Regondi Study No. 6 (2). Based on the review CD this is the best-recorded guitar I have heard. It is gratifying to see the traditional approach to luthiery produce such magnificent results.

There is some excellent playing on this disc. Martha Masters is able to emulate the very best of those luminaries to whom she has been exposed plus encapsulate the whole in a package of her own unique style. When asked about her favourite players as examples she nominated Scott Tennant, Manuel Barrueco, David Russell and Paul Galbraith, giving specific reasons for each nomination. Listening to the review disc I hear echoes of Tennant’s power, the elegance of Barrueco, David Russell’s tone and the phrasing of Galbraith plus a lot of Masters. Her playing in the Regondi is poetic and the Scarlatti, particularly K 178 [6], is especially memorable.

While the chosen instrument may contribute much to the clarity of music line, Martha Masters’ attention to string damping - very obvious in the rendition of Bach’s BWV 998 to be found refreshingly not truncated on her website - gives the music focus, clarity and crispness. If you visit her website try Schubert’s Ständchen for another musical treat.

Of the great Jose Luis Gonzalez (1932-1998), guitarist and ex-student Alexander-Sergei Ramirez said: ‘he had exactly what I think is missing in most classical guitarists today.’ What the specifics of Ramirez’s observations were is not referenced and while no comparison between the review guitarist and Jose Luis is inferred, on the Masters disc one encounters fine attributes and characteristics that regrettably are also missing in much of today’s recorded guitar music. Given the earlier reference to eighteen general expressions of ‘critical acclaim’ I am obviously not the first to have made that observation.

This is the sort of recording that makes the listener want more. Fortuitously that option is available.

Martha Masters, guitar. (Guitar Recital)
TANSMAN: Cavatina; BACH: Lute Suite 1; SOR: Mozart Variations; JOHANSON: Finnish Variations; PONCE: Theme, Variations, Finale; RODRIGO: En los Trigales -- Naxos 555720 -- 64 minutes

American guitarist Martha Masters won both the Guitar Foundation of America and Segovia competitions in 2000. Her playing is refined and elegant, with an understated sophistication. She rarely overwhelms with virtuosity, instead focusing on the expressive details and shape of each phrase. This makes for a style of playing that does not draw attention to itself, but instead shows an admirable level of musical maturity and restraint. At its best, this yields an intimacy and tenderness that can be thoroughly affecting, as in the sarabande from Tansman's Cavatina or in Ponce's enigmatic Theme, Variations, and Finale. In these works her understated approach gradually draws one in, creating a cumulative effect of deepening connection to the work's expressive core. Sometimes the approach seems too careful, as in the Bach Suite. Here more rhetorical extroversion is called for. The opening Prelude and Presto show Bach at his youthful, exuberant best; her playing here, and in the entire suite, is far too respectful and musically cautious. This is dramatic and, yes, virtuosic music, and it should sound that way.

But on the whole, the works here benefit from the guitarist's moderation, interpretive care, and insight. Sor's famous variations have rarely sounded more musically substantial. She takes the slow introduction seriously, giving beautiful shape to lines that are often given only a perfunctory reading or skipped altogether. The whole performance of this piece actually comes close to capturing some of the magic of Magic Flute itself, that extraordinary combination of low humor and religious reverence. Bryan Johanson's evocative Variations on a Finnish Folk Song offers a wonderful change of atmosphere, and Rodrigo's En los Trigales rounds out the program with a flourish and a hint of the extroversion that seemed to be lacking in the Bach.

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