Fiesta Americana

Fiesta Americana has four movements titled La Danza Galopa, Salsa Roja, Vuelo de la Mariposa and Fiesta Finale. I have always been a big fan of the compositions of Lindsey-Clark and was excited about receiving this recent work in my latest pile of music reviews. Having played through the pieces tentatively at first and then after a few more attempts at a slightly quicker tempo I began to recognise that here was a fabulous new composition for the solo guitar repertoire. It has lots of exciting things going for it: brilliant and thrilling rhythms, lovely tunes, exhilarating to play and quite substantial in length. The big disappointment came when I visited the d'OZ website and heard extracts from the work (presumably played by the composer) and realised that the speed which the first movement should be played and in particular the final one (which is almost beyond belief when following the score at the same time) was well beyond the tempo I was managing. I suppose, given a month of Sundays and more I may be able to get within touching distance, but this work needs someone with a virtuosic technique and a definite awareness of the style of music. The piece is dedicated to Berta Rojas so I don't think there will be any problem there and I look forward to hearing her performance of this super work. Highly recommended but not for the feint hearted.Sieve Marsh (Classical Guitar Magazine)