Michael Soloway Offers Wide-Ranging Guitar Bill

A young guitarist, Michael Soloway, made an impressive debut at Carnegie Recital Hall last Sunday. Debut concerts such as these tend often to be lonely affairs; but on this occasion, the hall was virtually packed with friends and admirers, and indeed there was much for them to admire. Mr. Soloway, to be specific, enjoys an exceptional command of his instrument, and at no point in this reasonably taxing program was there any sense of strain or struggle over the technical difficulties. His musical personality ranged from the somewhat passive and abstract in a Prelude, Fugue and Allegro by Bach to amorously evocative in the Torroba Sonatina that ended the evening. But whatever the temperature of Mr. Soloway’s passions at any given moment, graceful and fluent good sense was never far away. Bach’s sequential patterns had a hypnotic quality, and Lennox Berkeley’s Sonatina was amiability itself.

Mr. Soloway seemed to bring technique and musicality most perfectly into balance when he played Scott Joplin’s "Solace," a piece whose mournful yet delicate chromatic beauties will remain with us long after the ragtime vogue has faded away. Joplin wrote "Solace" for the piano, and the transcription here was by the performer himself.

–Bernard Holland

"Soloway performs these traditional pieces at wedding ceremonies on a steel string guitar, replacing the expected organ or small chamber orchestra. The result is graceful and intricate. While plucking the lower strings, he achieves a full enough sound to have you believe he’s playing two guitars rather than one. Some pieces are familiar to the ear ("Rondeau" by Mouret, "The Four Seasons" by Vivaldi, "Minuet in G" by Bach) while others are less known yet important works that Soloway translates with elegance and precision ("Sheep May Safely Grace" by Bach). Of course, Wagner’s "Bridal Chorus" (aka "Here Comes the Bride") makes an appearance too, and could be as appropriate for the Baroque or Renaissance periods as it is for today."

–Kenyon Hopkin

"Those who attended this performance of Michael Soloway were in for a treat that will be relished for a long time to come. Apparently, Michael’s reputation was already known to many because the Barge was packed to capacity.

For those of us who heard the artist for the first time, it was an unforgettable event. The first part of the program consisted of conventional offerings but the second half with it’s "Rags" was a delicious repast.

If one may be permitted to glance up from the subject on hand for a moment to view the historical perspective, what comes to mind is the elevation of the waltz which started as a lowly "Schwitzden", a sweaty peasant dance, to universal appreciation in the hands of the Strauss family. Every mainstream composer, Haydn, Mozart, Schubert, Chopin, Mahler, incorporated the waltz in their compositions. In America, the Jazz idiom ran a parallel course. It was given elegance and respectability by Ellington and Gershwin transversing from nightclubs to Carnegie Hall.

All these thoughts seem to be leading to the conclusion that the "rag" is on it’s way up. Given the loving care and technical virtuosity of the artist, we are witnessing the expansion of what might very well be another new American art form.

–Leon Block