IN REDCAR on a bleak penetratingly cold day when sea and sky were unrelieved grey, the only contrast was the huge white foaming breakers that made a dramatic picture framed by the glass walls of Tuned In performing arts centre.
Within all was cosy and warm, necessitating a few re-tunings of Owen Bunting’s guitar. This young musician has studied the instrument from the age of eight.
At 13 he won a scholarship to the Purcell School for Young Musicians and has performed before Prince Charles at Buckingham Palace and at the Chapel Royal, Hampton Court Palace.
He was awarded a Presidential Scholarship for exceptionally talented applicants to study at San Francisco Conservatory of Music and is now in his third year of undergraduate studies at the Royal Northern College of Music.
The programme opened with J S Bach’s Prelude, Fugue and Allegro in E-flat major, originally composed around 1735 for lute or harpsichord.
This is a beautiful work demanding very precise fingering, and has that hypnotic power which the best Baroque music often exerts. The final Allegro in particular displayed his exquisite technique.
Bunting introduced Ascension by Terrence Mitchell Riley and mentioned Riley’s propensity for "minimalist" music. The piece certainly sounded very beautiful and precise, confounding this reviewer’s preference for the florid, Latin guitar style.
Ascension is very engaging – a mix of styles and tempi within one movement – and was performed with consummate delicacy and precision.
Rossiniana op.119 No.1, completing the recital, opens gently, but quickly develops form and colour rich with beautiful figures sensitively expressed by Bunting, who responded to enthusiastic applause with an encore of Dohnanyi’s Caprice No.2 – a light-hearted thing of trills and runs – beautiful!
Irene MacDonald
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