David Tanenbaum and the JGO

"I wanted first to tell you how much I enjoyed playing with you and the "band. You're doing such important work for the guitar. I've told steve Reich all about our work together. - Greetings from California, all the best, David Tanenbaum."

The Night Of The 100 Guitars

at the Alte Oper - Frankfurt

Program

The " Night of the 100 Guitars " at the Alte Oper - Frankfurt was organized cooperatively by the Frankfurt - Conservatory and the youth-music-school. This motto was drawn by the title of the most spectacular part of the program that contained exclusively modern American music. It was the piece "Rosewood for 100 guitars", composed by the 1913 in Montreal born Henry Brant.

Actually it was even 132 guitarists: 25 students of the Main - Kinzig-music-school and 42 of the Conservatory who were positioned in three blocks on the gallery, 20 of the youth-music-school at the left and right sides of the auditory and 25 young musicians of the Youth-Guitar-Orchestra on the stage. The 1989 written, simply structured composition deals with the deforestation of the Brazilian rain-forest. The cues for the in itself usually in unison acting groups were given by the American guitarist David Tanenbaum.

The scratching and percussive guitar -sounds associatively sounded like junglenoises and like motorsaws. The main-group on the stage partly played also more complex textures. Clearly audible was the multiple quotation of the beginning of Fugue in g-minor (a-minor) BWV1000 of J.S. Bach. As a mixture of all groups, a diffuse sound of impressive areal effect emerged.

Steve Reich's " Acoustic Counterpoint " however proved to be of a higher compositional level. The Youth-Guitar-Orchestra of Baden - Württemberg, now conducted by the Frankfurt music-college-lecturer Helmut Österreich and with Tanenbaum as soloist, made the Minimal Music sounding hypnotically and meditatively. Also very homogeneously and clearly structured they interpreted the piece" Attic - New Age Walz" by the American guitarist Andrew York.

In the first part of the evening, Tanenbaum played solo, technically perfect and pleasantly quietly. The pleasing, mainly tonally held pieces were of Lou Harrison, Aaron Kernis, Terry Riley and Bryan Johanson. The most avant-garde- like piece was the very short " Walz " of Frank Zappa. (FAZ (05.10.97)

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Multiple Simplicity

Contemporary music from the USA - Minimal Music in congenial interpretations

The Jugendgitarrenorchester of Baden-Württemberg audibly has comparable facilities of virtuosity and emphasis in reference to Musica Nova as David Tanenbaum. Olivier Bensas "Trois Mouvements Dynamiques ", lead by Roland Boehm, is a dramatic, very dense Furioso, in which the young orchestra proves absolute precise playing, clarity of sound and rich tone-colours. Andrew Yorks AAttic " for nine guitars subtitled "New Age Waltz ", was characterized satirically, under Helmut Oesterreich's very spirited conducting.

Steve Reich's "Acoustic Counterpoint " of 1988 demonstrates the highly artificial level, that exciting Minimal Music makes up: David Tanenbaum and the Jugendgitarrenorchester are dialoguing the minimalistic patterns and they manages to evoke the impression of an extremely finely spun soundbuilding. The iridescent - changing colors invade deeply into the soul of the audience. (Fränkische Zeitung)