In the November/December, 2000
issue of Fanfare magazine, the
noted music critic, William Zagorski, wrote the following review
of
the debut CD by the Odeum Guitar Duo, "Concert Hall Classics":
ODEUM GUITAR DUO--CONCERT HALL CLASSICS - Robert
Wetzel, Fred Benedetti
(gtr) - SBE 6198 (56:26)
TORELLI Concerto in d. BEETHOVEN Duet with 2 Eye-Glasses Obbligato, Wo 32.
RIMSKY-KORSAKOV Sadko: Song of India. SCHUMANN Kinderscenen. Traumerei, op.15/7. CHOPIN Waltz in c#, op.64/2. VIVALDI Concerto in E, op.3/12, RV 265. BOCCHERINI Quintet in D, G.448: Introduction and Fandango.The Odeum Guitar Duo's fine metrical discipline was the first of their virtues that struck me in the auditioning of this disc. Any neophyte (and far less than neophyte) conductor will tell you that one of the most challenging demands of the craft is that of starting a piece at one tempo, and ending it, despite various intermittent modifications along the way, in that very same tempo. If one can do this, the music can and will unfold in a truly magical and telling way. The Odeum's revealing realization of Torelli's Concerto in D Minor (insightfully arranged by Robert Wetzel, who provided all of this disc's transcriptions) once again proves to me that there is a lot more to that composer than usually comes across in so-called standard performances. Their Vivaldi Concerto in E Major, R265, is sprightly and similarly ear-opening, and their final track--Boccherini's Introduction and Fandango from his D-Major Quintet--brings the disc to a most satisfying close. I found it enchanting not merely because it realized the piece's inherent fire but also because the Odeum Guitar Duo paid enlightening heed to its underlying structure.
The intervening selections--Beethoven's Duet with Two Eye-Glasses Obbligato, WoO 32, Rimsky-Korsakov's "Song of India" from his opera Sadko, and Chopin's Waltz in C# Minor, op.64, no.2 (here transposed to A Minor) --show, equally, Wetzel and Benedetti's instrumental skill and Wetzel's perspicacity as a transcriber. My personal test for any transcription is that it befaithful to its model, and that it show that model in a new, and perhaps unexpected, light. These three dashes of contrasting musical color passthat test handily.
The recording has been well produced. I found its upper partials (I'm speaking of sound, not teeth) as delightful as the Odeum's clean voice-leading and projection of instrumental color. I hungrily await their next disc.
William Zagorski
Fanfare magazine, November/December 2000
The debut disc by the Odeum Guitar Duo entitled, " Concert Hall Classics" , was recently given the honor by the magazine, Acoustic Guitar, as being one of the ten best independently produced guitar CDs for the year 2000. They are featured in the Stage and Studio section of the June, 2000
issue. Here are some quotes from the senior editor for Acoustic guitar, Simone Solondz, who wrote the article: