Last night I thoroughly enjoyed listening to São Paulo's Brasil Guitar Duo - João Luiz (left) and Douglas Lora (right) - playing unamplified classical guitars in a small, intimate, auditorium setting in Richland, Washington. (photo below courtesy of the Brasil Guitar Duo website)

The Brasil Guitar Duo was presented by  Camerata Musica as the kick-off for their 2014-2015 chamber music concert season. I was so impressed that I wrote them a check to become a patron for the upcoming season on the spot!

Let me back up a little bit: I met Cindy at the airport, just after arriving from Montreal, and we drove straight out to the concert. Cindy was the one who told me about this concert, and asked me to accompany her to hear the Brasil Guitar Duo, and I'm really glad I did!

It also turned out that quite a few of my music lover friends had the same idea, and it was a joyful surprise to see Ron & Sumi, Bill & Julie, and Michael & Janice there! (you've seen Ron and Bill in these pages before)

We got to the auditorium a bit early, so we were able to get front row center seats, which put us about the same distance from João & Douglas as I would normally sit from my beloved Tannoy Westminster Royal SE loudspeakers in my listening room!

Listening to unamplified live acoustic music up close and personal with João & Douglas playing their beautiful Brazilian Rosewood & Spruce classical guitars was a wonderful experience indeed, and we were all in a state of rapture at their virtuosic playing!

I was particularly intrigued with Douglas' beautiful 7-string classical guitar (looked like it added an extra bass string). Both João & Douglas had beautiful tone and technique, and I was quite in awe of everything they played. (Check out this great interview & playing with João & Douglas here, that discusses why the 7-string classical guitar is such a wonder for these compositions / photo below courtesy of the Brasil Guitar Duo website)

You might wonder how well the WRSEs stacked up compared to the real thing? Pretty well actually (and I say this only slightly tongue in cheek), but as Cindy correctly noted, you don't get quite that same sense of imaging, resolution, soundstage, and soundspace - even at the close distance we were from João & Douglas and their gorgeous Brazilian Rosewood & spruce classical guitars - that most hi-fi buffs are used to hearing from their systems! (there's a bit of a humorous irony & think-piece meditation encoded there my dear friends)

The program was superb, with selections from French Baroque composer, Jean-Phillipe Rameau (1683-1764), like Allemande, L'Egyptienne, and Les Cyclops (photo below courtesy of Wikipedia) ...

... from Havana, Cuba, composer Leo Brouwer (1939-), like Triptico (Allegro, Andantino, and Toccata). If I understood Douglas correctly, this was the first time this beautiful work of Leo Brouwer's for two guitars has been performed in concert in the USA, and as Douglas hinted, Mr. Brouwer may be the most important and creative living composer for classical guitar in the world today. (photo of Leo Brouwer below courtesy of Gabriel Guerra Bianchini/Cubarte/WFIU NPR)

For those of you reading this humble blog, you'll recognize the name of  the great Brazilian composer Egberto Gismonti (1947-), a long time favorite of my friend Stephaen Harrell (and now a favorite of mine too), who gave my the Sol Do Meio Dia LP pictured below (bless you brother Stephaen!).

João & Douglas played Mr. Gismonti's A Fala Da Paixao, Forro, Don Quixote, Karate, Agua & Vinho, and Strawa no Sertao for us, and it was fantastic!  (photo below courtesy of Wikipedia)

It was a wonderful evening of being with friends and listening to live acoustic classical guitar music performed by João & Douglas.

I would like to thank Cindy in particular for encouraging me to attend, as well as Camerata Musica, the Washington State Arts Commission, the National Endowment for the Arts, my friends & fellow patrons of the arts, Ron & Sumi, Bill & Julie, and Michael & Janice, and others, for making it possible to hear the wonderful Brasil Guitar Duo.

I encourage all of you to get out and spend an evening with friends & sweethearts listening to live music, it will enrich and illuminate your lives. If you have a local group like Camerata Musica, I also encourage you to become a patron of the arts, so that you might enrich others with that same joy of music that we all share.

Thank you for stopping by, and from my home to yours, may the music make you happy!