by Kevin McLaughlin
On Saturday evening, April 11, David Russell — the renowned Scotsman who makes his home in Spain — walked onto the stage of the Maltz Performing Arts Center, and with a shy smile and wave, set about performing wonders on his instrument for the Cleveland Classical Guitar Society.
He began with Mauro Giuliani’s Grand Overture, a piece from the era when the guitar was still trying to elbow its way into the drawing rooms of Europe, hoping to be taken as seriously as the piano or the violin. Giuliani, who left Italy for Vienna in 1806, was among those tireless advocates. Though he once played the cello in the first performance of Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony, it was the guitar that preserves his name in amber.
The Giuliani, with its bold chords and quicksilver runs, made a fitting opener. Russell shaped the music wisely, giving each fast passage a clean edge and guiding the piece forward with a sure hand.
No matter their theme, most classical guitar concerts eventually circle around to a piece by one of the instrument’s most famous composers. Agustín Barrios. Heitor Villa-Lobos. Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco. But none of those names appeared on the Cleveland Classical Guitar Society’s program on March 7.
Spend a few minutes with Marko Topchii, and you’ll know he’s a performer that likes to bend convention. The guitarist took the stage at the Maltz Performing Arts Center on March 8 wearing a baby blue suit jacket over a graphic tee, before promptly announcing that he was adding another piece to the program. Instead of kicking things off with Frederic Hand’s Undercurrents, his first selection was a brief, reflective work called Ground, written by his mother.