David Russell played last week to a full house in the Arrayanes patio in the Alhambra.  If you know his playing and you have been to the Alhambra you can stop reading right now, you can imagine just how perfect the evening was.  Here is a photo and an article in from a Spanish newpaper.  Russell’s musicality was, as always, inspiring and his ease with the music and the audience rounded out the performance.  Some say he is the best player alive and that may well be true, I have lately been trying to encourage people in my circle of friends to go to guitar concerts and have not always been successful in getting a positive reaction but this was a great success.

I would like to publicly congratulate the director of the Granada International Festival of Music and Dance on his determination to give the guitar a place in the programming.  It has been years since we have seen guitarists of Russell’s calibre at this festival but this year we get the top classical player, the top flamenco player and the winner of the Andrés Segovia contest.

Now I hate to say anything negative about what might be the best guitar concert I have been to in Granada but I can’t help myself.  If I hadn’t seen David walk on stage with his guitar in hand I would have sworn that the guitar had a transducer pick-up under the saddle.  That was exactly the sound that it had!  I was not in the front row by any means so I was hearing the amplification mostly but I have never heard a guitar amplified through a microphone sound that way.   Another thing I noticed is that I heard that sound quality all the way through the concert.  I have been to guitar concerts where my first impression of the sound or volume of the guitar was not good but after 10 or 15 minutes you stop hearing the guitar or its defects.  This aural adjustment didn’t happen the other night and I don’t know why.   I am now curious to hear more of Damman’s guitars to see if they all sound like a guitar with a pick-up and how they sound without amplification.

Let me close by saying that the experience was excellent and that this concert proved what I often say (although it might not be very good for business), “The deciding factor for great guitar music is the player”, the qualities of the guitar may be important in the player’s inspiration and satisfaction but it is of little importance to the listener.