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IT MAY seem an attempt at publicity-styleexaggeration, however, I say with all sincer-

ity that each year that I have attended theKoblenz International Guitar Festival that ithas become bigger and, more importantly, evenbetter than the previous year’s festival, and the2009 festival, from 25 May–1 June, was noexception.

This 17th Koblenz International GuitarFestival & Academy introduced a LifeAchievement Award, and in this its first year, itwas awarded to Celin and Pepe Romero. TheAward ceremony was held in the Koblenz artgallery called the Mittelrhein Museum, whereone could also enjoy the visual pleasure creat-ed by the surrounding paintings and sculptures.Antonio Máro, the father of Peruvian-Germanclassical guitarist Alexander-Sergei Ramirez,is a celebrated artist and sculptor. He made aspecial sculpture as part of the award and theceremony also marked the opening of animpressive exhibition of Máro’s artwork andthat of another of his sons, Rafael Ramírez, atthe Mittelrhein Museum.

It was a very moving ceremony; both Celinand Pepe Romero had tears in their eyes asthey received the award and gave their

speeches. Their words brought tears to theeyes of many members of the audience aswell, as they recalled the early days of theRomeros Quartet with their father CeledonioRomero and their brother Angel Romero. TheLaudation was written by Federico Moreno-Torroba Larregla and read, in his absence, bythe British actor Nigel Boyle. Speeches werealso given by Prof. Ingeborg Henzler,President of the University of Applied Science,Koblenz, Dr. Eberhard Schulte-Wissermann,the Mayor of the city of Koblenz, Prof. Dr.Joachim Hofmann-Göttig, the State Secretaryfor Culture of the Rheinland-Pfalz State,Santiago Antón Zunzunegui, the Spanish con-sul in Frankfurt, and finally by Dr. DieterMarcos of the Mittelrhein Museum, who gavea very interesting speech as the opening to theexhibition of Antonio Máro’s work. Musicalinterludes of appropriate solo guitar musicwere provided by Alexander-Sergei Ramírezand later by Marcin Dylla. A special commem-orative booklet for the ‘Festschrift für Celínund Pepe Romero’ was given to all those inattendance; it was full of public and privatepictures from throughout the Romeros’ livesand careers.

KOBLENZ INTERNATIONAL GUITAR FESTIVAL 2009

A Report by THÉRÈSE WASSILY SABA

Celín and Pepe Romero, Prof. Ingeborg Henzler, Georg Schmitz.

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Prof. Dr. Joachim Hofmann-Göttig, Dr. Eberhard Schulte-Wisserman, Carissa, Pepe and Celín Romero.

Alfred Eickholt, Celín Romero, Antonio Máro, Pepe Romero, Rafael Ramírez.

Dr. Dieter Marcos and Georg Schmitz.

Karoline Kumst in a masterclass with David Russell.

Pepe Romero in Concierto de Aranjuez masterclasses with the Staatsorchester Rheinische Philharmonie

conducted by Kristiina Poska.

Mike Reinhardt Trio.Lito and Celino Romero, Georg Schmitz,

David Russell, Maria Jesus Russell, Eliot Fisk, Manuel Barrueco, and Fabio Zanon.

Wulfin Lieske, Aniello Desiderio, Bernard Maillot and Zoran Dukic.

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After the ceremony, Celín and PepeRomero commented: ‘The KoblenzInternational Guitar Festival is a won-derful opportunity for guitarists from allparts of the world to come together in amagnificent and spiritually-chargedgeographical paradise. During the festi-val professionals, amateurs, students,young and old guitarists are together.We eat together, drink together andlearn to celebrate our differences andlearn that the core of all of us has verymuch in common and that it comesfrom a deep love for music, the guitarand humanity itself. This common lovedrives us to find our answers throughthe life voyage we have chosen to takewith the guitar as our vessel and NorthStar.

‘The personal interchange, the mas-ter classes, the concerts, the specialfeeling of brotherhood in which thecompetition takes place, all provide anenvironment for true love to be experi-enced through the guitar. For us to havereceived a Lifetime AchievementAward from the Koblenz GuitarFestival and Academy touched usdeeply and the memory will live with usto the end of our lives.’

As has become the tradition on theSunday before the start of the KoblenzInternational Guitar Festival, they heldthe Koblenz Guitar Stars Charity GolfDay, in support of the ‘NGO David yMaría Russell’ charity, at theJakobsberg Golf Course. The guitarist-golfers included: David Russell, RobertBrightmore, John Dearman from theLA Guitar Quartet, Russell Poyner, andof course, the Festival Director, GeorgSchmitz. In the evening, the MikeReinhardt Trio performed a vibrantselection of gypsy-swing in the open-aircourtyard restaurant at the golf course;the members of the trio are brothers:Mike, Moro and Sascha - and belong tothe Django Reinhardt family.

The festival’s evening concerts werea celebration of the different approach-es to guitar playing, given by the mostoutstanding guitarists of their genera-tion: Manuel Barrueco, David Russell,Eliot Fisk and Roberto Aussel, all gaveexcellent recitals and each of theirstyles is so completely different andindividual: the beauty of ManuelBarrueco's tone quality and articulationwas unforgettable, the vibrant energyand risking-taking for the sake ofgreater expression in Eliot Fisk's per-formance was exhilarating, RobertoAussel's attention to detail drew us intoa special intimacy with the music, andDavid Russell's playing brought a clari-ty to the interplay of voices, as if we

were hearing orchestral transcriptionsof the works he played.

To mark the 50th anniversary of thedeath of Heitor Villa-Lobos, FabioZanon gave a fascinating lecture-recital, playing all the solo repertoire ofHeitor Villa-Lobos and, in between, dis-cusseding the various manuscript ver-sions of these works and possibleapproaches to incorporating the differ-ent musical ideas in the manuscripts, asopposed to the Max Eschig publishededitions. Fabio Zanon gave a remark-able performance and the audienceshowed their great appreciation of bothhis scholarship and his playing. WulfinLieske also gave a special lecture-recital, performing on his remarkableAntonio Torres guitar – 'La Leona' –from 1856, which has a very attractivetone quality.

Another masterclass highlight wasPepe Romero’s masterclass for theConcierto de Aranjuez by JoaquínRodrigo with the StaatsorchesterRheinische Philharmonie, conducted byKriistina Poska. It is a very rare occa-sion where a student is given a master-

class for a guitar concerto with a pro-fessional orchestra in attendance. PepeRomero was full of stories and adviceon interpretation and he knows allthese details from having spent so muchtime with Joaquín Rodrigo as a friendand colleague, and as the editor ofmany of his works. Apart from the nur-turing advice and encouragement,which Pepe Romero offered to the stu-dents, I was pleased to hear CelinoRomero doing the same after the mas-terclass was over. Speaking to one ofthe masterclass participants, he told ofhis first experiences of performing theConcierto de Aranjuez: ‘My first soloconcert with orchestra was Rodrigo’sConcierto de Aranjuez with theHouston Symphony at Jones Hall inHouston with maestro ChristophEschenbach in 1994, I think. I had myfather Celín go with me for support.After the rehearsal he gave me a hugepresent: a 1976 Miguel Rodríguez gui-tar, which I still use along with my 2009Pepe Romero jnr guitar. On the day ofthe performance I had butterflies com-ing out of my ears, and right before I

Mario Gropp.

Los Romeros and the Staatsorchester Rheinische Philharmonie conducted by Kristiina Poska.

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was to go out on stage, my legs wouldnot move. Luckily my dad was there tosay that this feeling was normal, ‘Youare ready for this!’ and that he wouldn’thave allowed me to go out if he thoughtthat I wasn’t. He also reminded me ofwhat my grandfather told me before hisdeath, ‘if you’re not sure what your fin-gers are doing just think of me and Iwill put them in the right place’. I wentout and nailed it!’

Pepe Romero is a great lover of fla-menco and he gave the German pre-mière of Federico Moreno Torroba’sConcierto en Flamenco during the festi-val with the Staatsorchester RheinischePhilharmonie, conducted by KriistinaPoska. This work has only recently beenrevived by Pepe Romero; it was origi-nally written at the request of the won-derful flamenco guitarist Sabicas. Theguitar quartet of Los Romeros also per-formed the Concierto Andaluz byJoaquín Rodrigo on that same evening.

More German premières includedthe Morning in Iowa with music byMario Castelnuovo-Tedesco and text byRobert Nathan. The work was writtenin 1953 but had never been performed.It was rediscovered by the Italian gui-tarist Lorenzo Micheli, and received itsfirst performance on 8 August 2008 inItaly. The text was spoken by DavidKnopfler, brother of Mark Knopfler ofthe rock band Dire Straits. In fact,David Knopfler was an original mem-ber of Dire Straits. The ensemble con-sisted of guitar, banjo, clarinet, doublebass, accordion and percussion.Massimo Felici was the director of theensemble and played banjo.Castelnuovo-Tedesco captured thesparseness of the American landscapeand the mystery of each person’sunfolding fate in life, through his sensi-tive use of this unusual instrumentalcombination.

As always, there was a large interna-tional selection of competitors in annu-al guitar competition, which ran simul-taneously with the festival. Part of theprize for reaching the second and thefinal rounds of the competition was apublic masterclass with ManuelBarrueco, David Russell, KonradRagossnig, Roberto Aussel or EliotFisk. The winners of the KoblenzInternational Guitar Competition‘Hubert Käppel’ 2009 were FirstPrize: Florian Larousse from France(€3,000 and 10 concerts in Germany),Second prize: Magdalena Kaltchevafrom Bulgaria (€2,000 and 5 concertsin Germany) and Third Prize: KokiFujimoto from Japan (€1,000 and 3concerts in Germany).

Konrad Ragossnig, who was thePresident of the jury for the KoblenzInternational Guitar Competition‘Hubert Käppel’ 2009, spoke to meabout the competition and festival:‘Over the years the KoblenzInternational Guitar Festival &Academy has always had a great level.Nevertheless, this 17th edition offeredme and all of the members of the jury apleasant surprise because the competi-tion this year was really at an incrediblyhigh level. One can say, without anydoubt, that the festival and competitionhas a place among the most importantguitar events in the world. A highlight ofthis event was the very touching cere-mony awarded for the life’s work ofCelín and Pepe Romero.’

So many of the recitals at the festivalwere absolutely full and often, at thelast minute, more chairs had to be foundto accommodate the ever-growing num-bers in the audience. Aniello Desiderio’sperformance brought cries of joy andappreciation from the audience. Hisrecital included the premiere of fourpieces written for him by the FestivalDirector, Georg Schmitz. The LetzteZugaben, meaning ‘last encores’, arefour pieces which move magically pastyou almost as if you are in a dream. Themusic is light-footed and delicate, as if

it comes from another world – a magi-cal other world – and as is appropriatefor encore pieces, they leave you want-ing to hear more.

There was also a series of recitalscalled Young Artists in Concert, solorecitals given by previous winners ofthe Koblenz International GuitarCompetition ‘Hubert Käppel’. The per-formers included Gabriel Bianco, GoranKrivokapic as soloists and then in DuoCologne with Vladimir Gorbach. Thesethree young players are all excellentperformers and we can look forward tomany years of pleasure in listening tothem.

On a separate issue, and not at allwith regard to the three young playersmentioned above, I noticed a trendamong some of the young students towander into their own rhythmic worlds.When I was a young guitar student –many years ago now – the fashion wasto criticise Andrés Segovia’s interpreta-tions for his use of rubato, and thus fornot following the composer’s intentions.My musical ‘growing up’ was in the newmusical world of ‘authentic’ interpreta-tion. We all wanted our performancesof all music – be it renaissance, baroqueor modern music – to be as close tocomposer’s intentions as possible, andwhere the work was centuries old, we

David Knopfler, Lorenzo Micheli and the Morning in Iowa ensemble.

Florian Larousse in a masterclass with Manuel Barrueco.

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all researched as much as possible todiscover the composer’s intentions.There seems to be a new wave of inter-pretation among some players, wheretheir ‘feelings’ for the rhythm of thepiece is valued more than the compos-er’s creation on the musical score. Whatsurprises me is that I hear little in theway of criticism these days. I want toknow where all those critics of Segoviaare now and what their opinion is of thisnew generation of guitarists whoseinterpretation is beyond the limits of‘rubato’? What do the composers thinkabout the interpretation of their workswith pitch but not rhythmic fidelity?

More gypsy swing was heard at theend of the week with the JoschoStephan Quartett and special guest fin-gerstyle guitarist Richard Smith at thejazz venue of Café Hahn. Certainlythere could be no criticism of the rhyth-mic pulse in their performance. Thequartet members were Joscho and hisfather Günter Stephan on guitars,Sebastian Reimann on violin and MaxSchaaf on bass. It was difficult not tomove with the music as they playedtheir way through some well-loved jazzstandards. It was a top quality perfor-mance.

There were guitar lessons runningthroughout the week given by many ofthe guest guitarists, including RobertBrightmore, Marcin Dylla, TadashiSasaki, Dale Kavanagh, Zoran Dukic,Lorenzo Micheli, Massimo Felici, FabioZanon, Aniello Desiderio, JudicaelPerroy, Alexander-Sergei Ramírez,Steve Thachuk, Sonja Prunnbauer,Goran Krivokapic, Kaan Korad, WulfinLieske, Kürsad Terci, and last but notleast Ansgar Krause. Günter Schillingsand Russell Poyner gave lessons foryoung children, who were very enthusi-astic at attending the concerts andevents of the festival, and acquiring animpressive collection of autographs,when they were not in lessons.

Another of the interesting publicmasterclasses was that given by HubertKäppel, whose masterclass focused onthe works of Bach. Stephan Schlempergave a very informative lecture aboutacoustics and demonstrated thechanges in volume levels of the guitar invarious halls at various distances; it wasdistressing in fact to hear how the vol-ume and tone quality was reduced soquickly as the distance from the stageincreased.

A Press Conference was held forAniello Desiderio’s latest CD release ofVivaldi’s Four Seasons and Piazzolla’sFour Seasons, where he performs withhis two brothers, violinist Gennaro

Desiderio and pianist GaetanoDesiderio, as well as percussionistSalvatore Minale; their quartet iscalled Quartetto Furioso. The recordingis on Connector, a classical crossoverlabel established by Detlef Engelhard.It was Detlef Engelhard who workedwith Wim Wenders, recording the musicfor his very successful films aboutCuban musicians: Buena Vista SocialClub and the more recent film The Sonsof Buena Vista.

There was a mini-guitar fair runningthroughout the week in the spaciousentrance foyer of the Rhein-Mosel-Halle with many guitar makers exhibit-ing their instruments, including MichaelWichmann, Georg and Robert Gose,Petersen, Antonius Müller, ThomasFredholm, Joachim Schneider, the gui-tar and lute makers Armin and MarioGropp, and the guitar case makerZlatko Parlov. Of course, the guitardealers were all there too includingMiles Roberts from Britain andMatthias Adler from the famous shop

‘Die Zupfgeige’ in Karlsruhe, Germany.This is the first year that the KoblenzInternational Guitar Festival has organ-ised the mini-fair of this scale; theexhibitors commented to me on thehigh number of people that took aninterest in the exhibition and wereenthusiastic about its success.

There were many special visitors atthe festival such as Bernard Maillot,President of Savarez Strings, andEdmond Blöchinger – Pepe and CelinRomero’s guitar maker. The KoblenzFestival was really ‘the place to be forclassical guitar’ and we were constant-ly surrounding by the ‘who’s who’ in theclassical guitar world; the friendlyatmosphere meant that you could meetand talk to all your heroes without dif-ficulty and so it was a great inspirationto be there – the only sad part was hav-ing to return home at the end.

Hubert Käppel, Eliot Fisk and Dale Kavanagh.

Günter Schillings and his young guitarist students.

email: info@koblenzguitarfestival.de www.koblenzguitarfestival.de