The booklet accompanying this release reproduces each of the Goya etchings that inspired the 24 individual pieces within Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s solo-guitar suite, 24 Caprichos de Goya. To my eyes and ears Goya’s stylized grotesquerie and twisted expressive palette has little in common with Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s gentle, conservative, and masterfully idiomatic guitar writing. To be sure, there are inspired moments, such as No. 17’s dissonant rapid repeated notes and drum-roll imitations, or No. 22’s harmonically sophisticated cascading arpeggios, but don’t expect an epic, six-stringed equivalent to Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition. Had the composer bagged his Goya subtext and simply titled this suite “Guitar Moods”, he would have been right on the money. In any event, Zoran Dukic’s sense of color and textural variety, his seamless technique, and his lyrical disposition serve this music beautifully, as does Naxos’ warm, spacious engineering. [10/16/2009]
