The connecting link in this programme is Villa-Lobos and his influence on the guitar music of Brouwer and Orbon, both Cubans—as is Barrueco. Like Villa-Lobos, Brouwer has been a stylistic chameleon, experimenting with the music of other (European) cultures, but only in Brouwer's case does it show in his guitar music from one work to another. Villa-Lobos is always immediately recognizable but the Brouwers of the VillaLobos-influenced Danza caracteristica and Elogio de la danza, the charming popular-song settings, and the spiky avant-garderie of Canticum have very different faces. Orbon, a pupil of Aaron Copland, is closer to the second of the above Brouwers, he speaks his piece incisively and with commendable brevity, and though he is (unlike his bedfellows in this recording) not a guitarist, he clearly understands the instrument very well.
Barrueco is a cultured musician and a fine guitarist, who etches his lines firmly and with magnificent tone, and whilst there is expressivity in his playing there is no hint of sentimentality—a balance that Cubans and Brazilians commonly share. The point has been passed at which one might recommend the best recording of the Five Preludes of Villa-Lobos, I can say only that this one is among the very best. Strange, though, that the annotation omits mention of the dedication of No. 2 whilst explaining those of the other four. Does the translator of the German text not know that leere und gegriffenen Saiten are not ''empty and plucked strings'', but open and stopped ones? Barrueco's first recording is also said to have been ''chosen as the guitar record of the year in 1979 by Gramophone''; it was in fact the only guitar record among my six-disc ''Critics' Choice''—which is not quite the same thing. In describing this present disc as a very collectable one I am, however, not misinforming you.'