Guitarist dazzles crowd with Italian instrument: ; Review

This weekend, I had the great good fortune to meet a new and mostwonderful guitar. Made by a contemporary Italian master, it wasbeautifully marked with a tricolor sound board (the top with thehole in it), and its sound was magical.

With a blond cedar strip in the middle book-ended by two glowingplanks of Italian Alps spruce, it is somewhat of a hybrid. Manyluthiers have tried to blend the distinctive sonorities of the twowoods, with up and down success.

This instrument is a great success and I'll tell you why. Itsowner, Robert Gruca, was a guest of the Charleston Chamber MusicSociety for Sunday's concert, as well as for conducting a masterclass Saturday.

He began the concert at Christ Church United Methodist with athree-movement sonatina by Jorge Morel that gave him and theinstrument time to adjust to the room environment and to make somelovely music.

The second work was Suite No. 7 for harpsichord by G. F. Handel,and it was at the very beginning of the piece that wonderful andstrange musical things started.

Handel begins the first movement, "Ouverture," as a slow ramblingrubato with such a plethora of embellished turns and trills that thewhole mood shouts of Rococo.

The guitar's tonal colors, from the bridge to the base of theneck, seemed to be nearly infinite, depending on where the artistplucked the strings and with which parts of his fingers and in whichdirection he struck with his fingernails.

It was then that I began to really grasp what a special musicalsynergy was taking place.

This was a great player with a great instrument.

Gruca returned to the stage after intermission with IsaacAlbeniz's Suite Espanolo, a five-movement work that painted thesights, smells and sounds of five different Spanish cities.

Once again guitarist and instrument were able to bring almostvisceral evocations of these places of guitar ancestry into thehall. I spoke to the executive director of the Charleston ChamberMusic Society, David Stern, and suggested that his group book RobertGruca back next year at the present rate, because I feel that as sooften happens, the brighter Gurca's star begins to shine, and brightshining it will be, we may not be able to afford him.

Many thanks to the Chamber Music Society for bringing suchquality music to our fair town.