Milos – Mediterraneo – Milos Karadaglic, guitar – [TrackList below] DGG 00289 477 9338, 69:00 ****:
I guess DGG has decided to market Montenegrin guitarist Milos Karadaglic as simply “Milos”—trendy and sexier I suppose—in keeping with the current youth-is-everything philosophy that we see at so many record companies these days. The guy is handsome and talented without a doubt, and will be making a very large splash in the classical world over the years to come I am sure. Montenegro is not exactly a hot bed of classical guitar, and the young Milos turned to the instrument since the family, a very musical one, could not afford a piano, and the idea of a violin screeching everyday was not appealing to the parents. So an old missing-some-strings black guitar was chosen for the young man instead, and he went to town with it, flying through school courses with ease, winning the Julian Bream prize and accepting it from the hands of the master himself, and attending master classes with David Russell. On this first CD he has chosen music from the Mediterranean, a well-filled disc with novelties and popular items alike, extremely thoughtful in selection, and making for an enjoyable hour-plus of listening.
This young man has technique to burn, and despite his insistence that his and Julian Bream’s styles are “different” one cannot help but hear much of the older master in this playing. Bream was always strong-willed and sometimes aggressive in his playing, no-nonsense and to the point, but over the years he learned to relax somewhat and temper some of the ruggedness. Perhaps his early excursions into Renaissance music gave him new ideas about all sorts of other repertory as well. I hear this same “let’s get on with it” attitude in Milos’s playing also, forthright and direct, exceptionally passionate, but perhaps a tad too enthusiastic. One only has to listen to the classic Recuerdos de la Alhambra by Tarrega to hear the difference between a young man’s remembrances of the Alhambra Palace in Granada and the wistful longings of an older man, beautifully reflected in the magnificent recording of Pepe Romero on Philips. The Albeniz Asturias fares well under Milos’s temperament however, as exciting as you will ever hear it, and the Koyunbaba suite by contemporary composer Carlo Domeniconi (b. 1947) and the two pieces by Greek composer Mikis Theodorakis (b. 1925) “A Day in May” and “You Have Set, My Star” from his Epitaphios are given significant readings here.
So while there is room for growth with this artist—and why would there not be?—this is nonetheless a beautifully-played recital that has a lot to offer. I won’t be trading my Bream, Romero, and Williams recordings just yet, as there is a maturity of effort in those performances not found here, but Milos gets an “A” for enthusiasm and brilliance of style, and it will be very interesting to chart his artistic course over the coming years.
TrackList:
1. Asturias 2. Recuerdos de la Alhambra 3. Sevilla 4. Lágrima 5. Spanish Romance 6. Adelita 7. Granada 8. Koyunbaba 1. Moderato 9. Koyunbaba 2. Mosso 10. Koyunbaba 3. Cantabile 11. Koyunbaba 4. Presto 12. No. 3 Mera magiou 13. No. 4 Vasilepses, asteri mou 14. Capricho árabe 15. El testament de n’Amelia 16. Andaluza 17. Oriental No. 5 & no. 2 from Danzas españolas 18. Fandango
— Steven Ritter
