<\/p>\n
Anyone who has even glimpsed this site over the past quarter-century knows I am an absolute sucker for guitar music. Anyone who can make the instrument sing, I\u2019m more than willing to take the time to listen to.<\/p>\n
So when I was informed about Saudade<\/i>, the debut effort from Plinio Fernandes, I was immediately drawn to it. And, after watching the video for the lead-off track \u201cAssanhado,\u201d I was floored\u2014it simply should be illegal for someone to be that good on the guitar. (Yes, kids, that\u2019s one<\/i> guitarist playing\u2014not multiple.) There\u2019s a reason this 27-year-old native of Brazil is being heralded as the next master of the classical guitar\u2014simply because he\u2019s the real thing.<\/p>\n
For those not familiar with the word, \u201csaudade\u201d refers to a state of longing for someone or something, especially with the knowledge that what one is desiring is gone forever. The closest English word is \u201cbittersweet\u201d\u2014that is, happy and sad at the same time. More often than not, Fernandes captures that feeling in his playing; tracks like \u201cBeatriz\u201d and \u201cAquarelle: II. Valseana\u201d are hauntingly beautiful while capturing that feeling without speaking a word. That<\/i><\/b>, boys and girls, is power.<\/p>\n
While most of these 18 tracks feature Fernandes performing solo, it\u2019s when he pairs up with people like cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason (\u201cBachianas Brasilieras No. 5: I. Aria (Cantilena): Adagio\u201d), vocalist Maria Rita (\u201cO Mundo E Um Moinho\u201d) and violinist Braimah Kanneh-Mason (\u201cMenino\u201d) that the power of Fernandes\u2019s playing is truly amplified. This isn\u2019t to say that more duets would have worked on Saudade<\/i>, rather that these three were especially moving to listen to.<\/p>\n
Even if one is not familiar with the works of such artists as Heitor Villa-Lobos, Sergio Assad and Angenor de Oliviera, anyone with a casual knowledge of music will recognize, at the very least, Fernandes\u2019s take on Antonio Carlos Jobim\u2019s \u201cThe Girl From Ipanema.\u201d And where this song has been covered more times than one would like to admit. Fernandes\u2019s take on it feels close to the bone, and undoubtedly would have pleased Jobim.<\/p>\n
If there is any weakness with Saudade<\/i>, it\u2019s that Fernandes stays extremely true to the classical roots of the songs he plays\u2026 and his style almost begs for him to try to put some flash into the playing. This isn\u2019t to say he should have showboated in his performances, which could have corrupted the source material. Rather, I\u2019d have liked to have had at least one example of Fernandes performing an original piece that would allow him to expand on the skillset he has obviously mastered.<\/p>\n
This, however, is a personal wish, and not a performance flub. All in all, Saudade<\/i> captures a spirit of classical guitar that has been absent with the passage of many of the instrument\u2019s masters, such as Segovia. Where his talent is going to take him, only time will tell, but if this disc is any evidence, Plinio Fernandes is going to be a major name to watch.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":34551,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[10757],"rating":[5613],"class_list":["post-46397","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-plinio-fernandes","rating-rating-a-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/46397","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46397"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/46397\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34551"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=46397"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=46397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}