April 2, 2025
Kopleff Recital Hall, Georgia State University
Atlanta, Georgia – USA
Richard Knepp, guitar.
Vincent LINDSEY-CLARK: Shadow of the Moon
Leo BROUWER: El Decamerón Negro
Francisco TÁRREGA Capricho Árabe
Alan THOMAS Out of Africa (“I. Call at Sunrise”)
Nikita KOSHKIN: Usher Waltz
Andrew YORK: Home
Jon Ciliberto | 9 APR 2025
As a classical guitarist in heavy remission, I strive to keep up with local six-string performances. Dr. Richard Knepp teaches at Young Harris College in North Georgia, and performed at his alma mater, Georgia State University, on Tuesday, April 2, 2025.
The lunchtime recital at Kopleff Recital Hall was attended mostly by students and fellow classical guitarists. For me, it was a welcome escape. Georgia State’s music program offers many opportunities to hear music throughout the week, with easy access via MARTA.
The program was loosely themed on works for guitar that originate from literature. Cuban composer Leo Brouwer’s El Decamerón Negro (1983) springs from Boccaccio’s Decameron of the 14th century, which itself influenced The Canterbury Tales. Brouwer’s work is in three movements, each an individual “story” with a base in Africa, rather than Italy. Its hero is a great warrior who wants to be a musician.
Each movement has a traditional structure: sonata, rondo, and three-part (ABA).
Those glancingly familiar with Brouwer may think of him as an atonal composer, but he made a shift back to harmonic work later in his career. El Decamerón Negro is his most often performed work from this phase, and it features many comfortably satisfying passages, as well as a range of complex rhythmic choices. I found Knepp’s interpretation less dynamically wide than some others’ and largely quite smoothly delivered. The initial phrase, for instance, did not have quite the hardness that one often hears, and this was evidence of the performer’s general approach: to occupy a narrower dynamic range, not to the disadvantage of the work but to stake out an interpretative territory. I asked Dr. Knepp about his approach, and he replied in an email: “I like the idea of it being more poetic as opposed to aggressive. Brouwer handles much of the energetic “tribal” elements for us with the odd meters and occasional rasgueados.”
Knepp’s handling of arpeggiated passages, for instance, also showed the value in this approach, where slight dynamic variations show off the color of the arpeggio better than wide ones.
I’ve always found the work’s third movement deeply reminiscent of Hawaiian slack key guitar, likely just the reflection of some broadly pentatonic changes, as well as a relaxed “island” rhythm. The subtle dynamics already mentioned interacted nicely here with Knepp’s right hand positioning, bringing sharper tones into the mix.
Tárrega’s Capricho Árabe, a concert standard, also benefited from a greater sensitivity to dynamics — communicating the work’s tender, rather than histrionic, air of longing.
Two other works presented the “from literature theme”: Alan Thomas’ Out of Africa and Nikita Koshkin’s Usher Waltz. The latter was inspired by Edgar Allan Poe’s story The Fall of the House of Usher, and it seeks to convey its weird themes. Some very detailed analysis of this portrayal exists,[1] but the listener easily picks out the oddity of extreme vibrato, heavy string plucks, and strange melodic juxtapositions. The current climate of the country has compelled me to engage in some amount of escapism in weird fiction, and so I appreciated the inclusion in the program.
Dr. Knepp closed the performance with a very “wholesome” and comfortable work, seeming to relieve some of the tension elevated by the Koshkin and nicely sending everyone out to confront the rest of their day, whether weird or otherwise. ■
EXTERNAL LINKS:
- Dr. Richard Knepp: yhc.edu/directory/richard-r-knepp
- [1] Koshkin’s Usher Waltz explained – Robert Bedwell | Facebook, “Guitar Lovers” | Dec 7, 2024
Read more by Jon Ciliberto.
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