WORKS FOR GUITAR DUO BOGDANOVIC: Sonata Fantasia. RODRIGO: Tonadilla. CASTELNUO-VO-TEDESCO: Fuga Elegiaca. ABSIL: Suite Pour Deux Guitares. ROSETTA: Sonata. PETIT: Tarantelle. Giuseppe Caputo and Luciano Pompilio Niccolo NIC 1034 CD I wlll undoubtediy dig myself into a very deep hole if I venture to suggest that Italy, despite a long and noble association with thè guitar, is not a country noted for its guitar duos. If Caputo and Pompilio maintain thè standard achieved here, ali that couid change, for this is a very impressive debut. Thè ten-minute Sonata Fantasia by Dusan Bogdanovic is a demand-ing yet by no means unrewarding opener. Fuelied by dynamic rhythms and refreshingly non-gim-inicky use of percussion, thè Bogdanovic piece provides a potent vehicle for thè duo's considerable talents - here is an able and respected guitarist/composer who just needs a Tango en Skai to put hlm on thè worid map. Tonadilla is a demanding yet not particularly loveable work which wouid have died thè death years ago had it not been written by thè man who gave us thè Aranjuez. Despite its relative lack of celebnty, thè CasteInuovo-Tedesco provides a much more rewarding innings, as does thè Absil. In ali three works, thè duo gives a performance which is both able and imaginative. Thè real find, however, is thè hefty four-movement Sonata com-posed in 1971 by Giuseppe Rosetta. With an opening move-ment in sonata form and a colour-ful theme and varlations on thè end, this is a significant contribu-tion to thè repertoire which some-how didn't find favour first time around. It also contains some neh harmonic language, thè reference to Ravei in Stefano Palamidessi's programme notes being by no means out of order. Ali this, together with a neat and rhythmic account of Petit's ever¬green Tarantelle, adds up to an out-standing international debut. Paul Fowles
