Taso Comanescu, guitar 

with guest artists Yoshika Masuda, cello and Anastasia Malliaras, soprano

In the first American Guitar Society concert of the 2025 season, guitarist Taso Comanescu took the stage at Faith Lutheran Church. It was an honor, he said, to be before an audience of accomplished guitarists. He would, in fact, so dominate the evening as to fill the assembled with awe.

In the first part of the program, he played pieces by Murcia, Ponce, Granados, Villa-Lobos, and Turina in the tradition of Segovia, doing so with technical mastery and evident joy, often pausing to relate the meaning of the music to him, for example, the influence and inspiration of Segovia. After an intermission, fellow musicians celloist Yoshika Masuda and soprano Anastasia Malliaras, came on stage, each to be accompanied by him in magnificent duets by Spanish and Latin composers and including one traditional Greek folk song. Comanescu ended the program with solo performances of Malats, Torroba, and Albéniz.

Throughout, Comanescu was a cheerful, commanding presence, displaying technical mastery that brought out the soul of his 1973 Ramirez instrument. He and his fellow performers created a memorable evening.

John F. Steiner