Artsmart

‘…After the interval, the Cape Town guitarist James Grace joined the orchestra in Joaquin Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez and showed that he is a top-class player with a total command of his instrument. The slow movement has made the name and fortune of this concerto, and the haunting main theme was played most expressively.’
 
Michael Green, 2009


Philharmonic Events

The soloist of the evening was the guitarist James Grace, who
teaches this instrument at the University of Cape Town. He played
the Guitar Concerto, written in 1951, by the Brazilian composer
Heitor Villa-Lobos. It is an interesting 20-minute work, in the modern idiom but not aggressively so, with roots in the indigenous music of Brazil.

The guitar is a small-toned, intimate instrument and Villa-Lobos
sanctioned the use of a microphone in performing this work. Without the loudspeakers on either side of the platform the sound of the guitar would have been lost in the City Hall, even though the
orchestra’s role is small and discreet.

James Grace, a tall young man with a mildly bohemian air, dark
open-neck shirt, short haircut, played with great intensity and
accuracy and extracted full value from this exotic score. The
audience, who appeared to include a number of guitar-lovers, gave him an enthusiastic reception.

Artsmart, 2007

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