Three Graces

1. Waltz 2. Tango 3. Polka

“Dissonant dances with dark humor” Mikhail Sytchev is no doubt a very tal­ented composer, with a unique flavor to his music; his Waltzes and Scenes from a Silent Film being two works I particularly enjoy. This latest offering is a set of three very short dances; a waltz, a tango, and a polka. Starting with the Waltz, one quickly realizes that there is more than the usual predominance of effects to create this particular sound world-namely, strik­ing various parts of the guitar, squeaking the strings in glissando runs, playing the strings between the nut and the machine heads, and so forth. That is all perfectly fine, of course, but add this to the disso­nance factor and the black humor one associates with much of this man’s writing, and it becomes quite bizarre. The Tango that follows continues with chord shapes sliding up and down against linger clicks and syncopated dissonances from the other guitar. The Polka is only one min­ute and 40 seconds long and never seems to really settle down into a piece of music, so intent is it on sounding bitingly unusual.
-Chris Dumigan (Classical Guitar Magazine)