Steven Barker

Opinion Editor

When Vladimir Gorbach walked into Music Building 127 on Thursday, April 11 for his CSUB Guitar Arts Series concert, the room was thick with silence. Just 90 minutes later, a standing ovation and a line of guitar students clamoring for pictures and autographs marked his departure.

“From the very first note he played, the technical and aesthetic artistry that he had was phenomenal,” said Elizabeth Provencio, a graduate student seeking her teaching credential in music. “Gorbach had through-the-roof talent.”

After cruising through his opening Rondoletto, Opus 4 by the Italian guitarist Mauro Guiliani, Gorbach performed a beautiful rendition of Domenico Scarlatti’s Three Sonatas. Beginning with the whimsical Sonata 441, Gorbach played light, cheery rhythms to which many audience members nodded their heads. He then progressed into the sentimental Sonata 87, whose slower chords contrasted wonderfully with the rapid flurry of notes in both the preceding Sonata 441 and concluding Sonata 27.

Gorbach concluded the first half of his concert with Vicente Asencio’s five-movement Collectici Intim, a work whose individual movements corresponded to different moods. Beginning with La Serenor, Gorbach demonstrated his technical prowess, seamlessly executing the complex segments of La Joia, La Calma, La Gaubanca and La Frisanca (serenity, joy, calm, delight and haste, respectively). Gorbach’s performance of La Frisanca – in particular, his mastery of a series of 16th note tremolos – drew an especially warm reception from the audience, garnering the largest applause of the night.

“My favorite piece was the Asencio piece, reason being each title represented a different emotion, and it came across extremely clear in the playing,” said Provencio. “Gorbach is able to create so many different tone colors on the guitar, so it really made each emotion very clear and very poignant.”

After performing Dionisio Aguado’s Andante and Rondo A minor, Gorbach played an adaptation of Astor Piazzolla’s Verano Porteño. A four-movement tango dedicated to the four seasons, Gorbach’s performance of Primavera Porteña, Verano Porteño and Oroño Porteño (spring, summer and fall respectively) was a sometimes frantic, sometimes mellow but all times beautiful performance that inspired applause after its conclusion.

Finishing with a performance of Miguel Llobet’s turn-of-the-21st century composition entitled El Mestre and variations of Spanish folk songs, Gorbach amazed the audience. Resting his right hand atop the side of the guitar, he played extended segments of Spanish folksongs with only his left hand. Combined with the contrast of El Mestre’s intimate, fluid chords with the fast-paced sections of Spanish variations, Gorbach concluded his concert, earning himself a standing ovation and the adoration of members of the audience.

“He was just perfect,” said Salvador Rios, a freshman music major.

“The musical experience that you get when you see someone perfect an art at that level, it’s mind-blowing to see,” added Provencio.

Dr. Jim Scully, Director of the CSUB Guitar Program, agreed with Provencio and Rios regarding the concert. “It was stunning,” said Scully. “Gorbach had lots of wonderful expressive qualities to his playing; he had great care with every little gesture, and you can separate the good from the great by that level of care and thoughtfulness of every note.”

“When you hear Vladimir or some of the big names that come through, the difference is that every tiny little thing is thought about and planned, as if nothing is left to happenstance,” Scully added.

Beyond the entertainment value of the concert, Scully says Gorbach’s performance will be instrumental in the growth of CSUB’s Guitar Arts Series. “We’re trying to build a strong guitar program here,” said Scully. “Part of that is getting our students up to snuff, giving them lots of opportunities to perform and getting them really exposed to lots of things. The Guitar Series is a part of that and exposes [our students] to what an A-level player around the world or the country is doing.”

In particular, Scully said the ability to draw Gorbach, a winner of more than 10 international competitions and, most recently, the 2012 Guitar Foundation of America (GFA) International Concert Artist Competition, will help inspire guitar students.

“Students sometimes come from Fresno State or Northridge and see their peers or their regional peers,” Scully said. “This is seeing the peer 10 years from now that has really gone for it, and so you get a sense of your insignificance to some degree, but that gets you focused on what you need to do to get accomplished in the first place.”

In that regard, students said they immediately felt inspired. “As a guitar student, being exposed to that type of musicianship is just amazing,” said Rios. “Just the fact that I can witness [Gorbach] will allow me to improve on my own playing.”