First, this is one of the clearest, most natural-sounding, and acoustically pleasing guitar recordings you’ll ever hear. Made in the famed Snape Maltings concert hall, it’s a production that gets everything right, from the comfortable recording/listening perspective to the full-bodied yet warm, easy-on-the-ear resonance of James Boyd’s guitar. And Boyd’s technique is impressive as well; he runs around the fingerboard with such clarity and ease–and without the scrapes, slides, and scratches that are so distracting on so many guitar recordings. And that means we are fully focused on Boyd’s deftly sculpted melodic passages in the Dowland or the firmly executed textural effects in the Tippett. (This is also one of those rare recordings where the sound of the instrument comes from the space between the speakers, effectively rendering those rectangular boxes invisible and immaterial.)
Britten’s innovative Nocturnal has received many fine recorded performances, but Boyd plays this poignant and personal work as well as anyone, except perhaps Julian Bream, who premiered it at the Aldeburgh Festival in 1964. (Bream famously commented that it was the only work written for him where not a single note had to be changed.)
I received this recording directly from Boyd, and it has no label name (I made up the one listed for purposes of Classicstoday.com’s database) and is only available from the guitarist’s website: www.jamesboyd.co.uk. We don’t usually review recordings that aren’t offered through the usual retail channels, in-store or online, but this is a special case–an exceptionally well-performed, well-recorded collection of important repertoire that will make any guitar aficionado very happy indeed. Outstanding! [3/8/2007]
