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2006 - A year in pictures
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In Parintins, Brazil, the girl in a mini-skirt made a call from a public phone box framed by a bull's head. In Las Vegas, the Paris Eiffel Tower, reduced, sprawled over the pavement. In Xátiva, Spain, the For Sale notice stirred noiselessly in the breeze next to the house where Rodrigo Borgia was born in 1431, later to become Pope Alexander V1. All three I recall vividly from my travels in 2006 as unconnected random events, for at the time that is what they seemed.
I started the year quietly enough in January studying and practising
until the end of the month when I returned to the recording studio.
Now, studio work can be quite different from concertising which
is the result of careful and sustained preparation. My studio work
during 2006 involved recording music newly minted with a pencilled
manuscript serving as guide to the recording process.
In mid February I went on a tour of the Caribbean, arriving at the tail-end of the Carnival in Parintins, Brazil, a small town on the banks of the River Amazon. The Carnival, an ancient tradition rooted in long-forgotton rituals, brings together
past and present in a joyful celebration. 
I imagine the bull's head framing the
phone box was put into storage for another year, but I cannot be sure because I didn't stay long enough to find out.
Within a few days, I had crossed the equator, and started on a US tour. I played in some venues with wonderful acoustics for the guitar, most notably Spivey Hall in Atlanta, the Hoffman Auditorium in Connecticut, and the Music Center in the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. It was there in Las Vegas, that I saw the Eiffel Tower sprawled over the pavement. Let me explain. Las Vegas is a city where it appears that buildings are expressly designed to catch your eye for longer than the ones next door. When they no longer do so, they are blown up.
"Blown up?!", I exclaimed to my guide and photographer Joe Renemore as we walked along the Strip.
"Yep, blown up. It's cheaper and draws a big crowd"
"How old are the buildings when they get blown up?", I asked.
"Maybe twenty, twenty-five years old. You see that one over there? That's ready to go!"
Las Vegas has adopted a singular attitude to matters past and present,
of which one consequence is a huge optimism in the future.
For all my concerts in the US I had chosen to play a programme I have devised called Millennium Guitar: the first 1000 year which includes a Mozarabic chant from Toledo, Spain in 1050, a musical tribute to the poet Federico Garcia Lorca, and ends with an antiphon by the Medieval abbess composer Hildegard von Bingen. I had thought carefully of whether to present a more conventional programme, but decided instead to play this one which has caused such a deep impression in many venues around the world. I am pleased I did so, since there are few more rewarding experiences for a performing artist than to perceive a listener's pleasure at hearing a musical work for the first time. Such was the case during the tour, for many of the works were unfamiliar to the American audiences.
From the US I flew directly to Venezuela where I was involved in
the Alirio Dí az Guitar Competition, both as member
of the jury and performer. It took place in Alirio Díaz's home
town of Carora, whose large Spanish colonial houses dominate the
historic town centre. Alirio Díaz, in his 83rd year, took a
lively interest and an active role in the competition as president
of the jury. 
In my Carora recital, I presented an entire first part of Baroque
music, including suites by de Visée and Bach, while dedicating
the second to Spanish music, and a guest appearance by the enterprising
and distinguished American guitarist Christopher MacGuire, with
whom I played an impromptu arrangement of Tarrega's tremolo study
Recuerdos de la Alambra, much to the delight of the large
audience. I avoided duplicating the tremolo line throughout, which
seems a rather trite and repetitive thing to do, but please do not
ask me to play it again, because I cannot remember what I did!
After a concert in Merida with the very fine city orchestra and
a brief stop-over at Caracas' Tamanaco Hotel, on 20th April I flew
back to Europe where I had spent but a few days since February.
For the rest of April and all of May I played and taught in the
UK, Italy and Spain, including the Hondarribia Guitar Festival,
whose musical excellence and culinary delights in an old town setting
are ably coordinated by the charming Carles Pons He also finds time
to direct various other festivals and give concerts of his own.
In early June I visited the Aranjuez Palace for the first time on
a day off from the Joaquín Rodrigo Guitar Competition,
where I was serving on the jury. I strode through its majestic rooms
and courtyards in the company of Cecilia León, Joaquín
Rodrigo's grand-daughter and my great friend and stage companion,
the singer Patricia Rozario.
The following week I returned to my father's home town of Valencia,
Spain, where I gave the premiere in that city of Ophelia,
a work composed for me by the Australian Phillip Houghton. The piece
is a musical evocation in five movements of the tragic Ophelia legend.
Its spare textures, and unusual guitar tuning produced a compelling
effect, and a complete contrast to my next work, the world premiere
of Trujaman by the Spanish composer Carlos Cruz de Castro.
The work is not so much contrapuntal, as an extended conversation,
politely conducted, in which neither party appears to be listening
to the other, until a furious climax, when they get into a fight.I
think you will have to hear it for yourself to know what I mean.
The concert was recorded by Spanish National Radio.
On the next day Pepe Romero gave a splendid concert in the same
Festival, after which, in true Spanish style, we all went out for
supper at about 11.15pm.
During much of July and August I spent time in the Americas, giving
concerts in Venezuela and Mexico. My concert in Acapulco was particularly
memorable. It took place in the large open coutyard of an old Spanish
colonial house, with me seated under a mango tree. Sudden gusts
of wind cut through the very hot and humid air, bringing down mango
fruits and branches all around me, but thankfully not on me. 
Afterwards I discovered that Acapulco had caught the side effects
of the very appropriately named Hurricane Carlota. The unusual atmospheric
conditions alerted the local wild life, and a large silent bat flew
across the courtyard repeatedly, sometimes over my head and at others
on a collision course with it. A few minutes after the end of the
concert, a torrentional downpour burst upon us, with a ferocity
I had only previously seen in Hollywood movies. I was calmly asked
to gather my belongings and leave as quickly as posible, since the
courtyard and house would soon be flooded. I did not need to be
asked twice. I fled in a taxi.
On my return to Carora, Venezuela, I spent a very pleasant few days
in the company of Alirio Díaz whose perfect recall of streams
of poetry and prose I envy. We posed in front of one of two street
murals in the town which feature a split guitar. This one also bears
a striking image of Díaz himself. If only all street murals
were as good as this.
By mid August I was back in Europe preparing for important concerts
in Londonderry and Vienna. The recital at the Derry Guitar Festival,
Northern Ireland, featured the first European performance of Passacaglia
and variations by the young Venezuelan composer Elvis Suarez.
I had already premiered the work in Venezuela earlier in the year.
The work is inspired by and derived from Medieval music, and yet at the same time exploits the modern sound world of the guitar. Here is music that looks forward to the future with a deep acknowledgement of the past. Maybe on a wider level this was my theme for 2006, past and future, side by side, always present together. Londonderry, too, faces both ways but thanks to the vision of such people as Sean Woods, Director of the Derry Guitar Festival, and of Kevin Murphy, Director of the Classical Music Society at the University of Ulster the city is planning for the future, while at the same time coming to terms with its troubled past.
On 1st September I presented a concert at the Vienna Konservatorium
Groser Ehrbarsaal where the pianist composer Brahms and the violinist
Joachim had also played more than a century before. The hall has
remained largely unchanged. Again, I was reminded of past and present,
hand in hand. As I began the performance I felt a complete calm
and concentration, as always happens when I play in a beautiful
acoustic with historical associations.
Maybe the spirits of great artists long gone live on in these great halls, invisibly guiding the hands and minds of future generations, inspiring them onwards and upwards ….but enough of that musing, and on to the hard grind of preparing a lecture on "60 years of the Classical Guitar" making some reference to Manchester, for that was my next engagement, invited by Paul Fowles on behalf of the Manchester Guitar Circle. He had shrewdly assessed my interest in all matters past, both musical and historical, as being the necessary qualification for delivering such a talk.
I prepared and delivered it with enthusiasm, the problem being what to leave out, not what to put in. The following day I gave a concert in Manchester which included Ophelia by Phillip Houghton and the English premiere of the Passacaglia and variations by Elvis Suarez.
During the rest of September and October I undertook engagements
in the UK, Italy and Belgium and spent more time in the recording
studio until flying to Venezuela for the inauguration in Carora
of the Cátedra Internacional de Guitarra "Carlos Bonell",
an independent academia structure which offers and organises seminars,
workshops, masterclasses and concerts. The inaugural events were
a collaboration between Barquisimeto University, the Alirio Díaz
Theatre, and the Cátedra in a presentation of workshops and
classes about the Concierto de Aranjuez by Joaquín Rodrigo,
featuring technique, interpretation, history, musical anlysis, and
a comparision of recorded performances. During the week I played
the concerto with the Lara Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Tarcisio
Barreto Ceballos in Barquisimeto.
Back in Europe in early November I began to prepare for my last
two important engagements of 2006, one in England and the other
in Spain. Taverham Hall in Norfolk is a beautiful rural estate now
home to a school where I frequently give classes and concerts for
the brilliant composer, teacher and music director Jane Bentley.
I spent a stimulating weekend with fine young musicians mostly aged
between 8 and 15, befote continuing to Xátiva, near Valencia,
Spain where I presented the first Xátiva Guitar Weekend.
I dedicated it to the vihuela music of Luys Milan (c.1500 - c.1560)
who was born in the town, as too was Pope Alexander V1 (1492-1503).
In a break from music the students and I strolled through the ancient
streets of Xátiva. Next to the Pope's house flapped the For
Sale notice. Someone was selling and moving on, while the house
next door provided a constant reminder of times past.
Mexico in December offered me the final link for my chain of 2006
events. I arrived just in time to visit the Sanctuary of the Virgin
of Guadalupe on 12th December, the 475th anniversary of her appearance
in a vision to Indio Juan Diego. The Sanctuary was adorned with
a profusion of flowers in a design owing much to the pre-Christian
civilizations of Mexico. Hundreds of people, including young and
old, and families with young children queued to file through the
Sanctuary.
Parintins...Las Vegas...Londonderry...Xátiva...the Vienna Konservatorium Groser Ehrbarsaal...Suarez's Passacaglia and variations...Londonderry...the Sanctuary in Mexico - all may have been random stations on my journey through 2006, connected only by my presence, but I can now discern a connecting pattern. The past is present, visible or not, challenging us to remember and understand it. Embracing it with curiousity and discovering where we come from helps us understand the present, giving us a firmer base for shaping the future, whether it be in connection with a religious experience, a building site, or a musical performance.
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