Carlos Bonell Concert October 15th

Unfortunately your correspondent was struck down with the dreaded 'lurgy' so he missed out on what was by all accounts, a fantastic concert performance from Carlos Bonell. Which is why he is so grateful to our stalwart chairman for the following account -

Bromley Guitar Society celebrated its 30th Anniversary, on October 15, 2011, with a recital by Carlos Bonell.

Carlos played a varied and interesting programme ranging, quite literally, from Bach to The Beatles, to use a time worn cliché. In the first half, we were treated to the famous “Choros” and “Five Preludes” by Villa-Lobos, “Kinkachoo, I love you”, by the Australian composer Phillip Houghton and Bach’s Lute Suite in E Minor BMV 996.

After the interval, Carlos continued his performance with “Julia Florida” by Barrios, “Strawberry Fields Forever” and “Here Comes The Sun”, by Lennon and McCartney, “Capricho Arabe” by Tarrega, “Petenera El Vito” by Sainz de la Maja and “Danza del Molinero” by de Falla, arranged by The Maestro himself.

As if this technically demanding programme was not enough in itself, Carlos then played “Penny Lane”, by Lennon and McCartney, as his encore.

The sheer brilliance of Carlos’s playing riveted the audience’s attention from the opening notes to the final encore.

We applauded him with great and well-deserved enthusiasm after every item. The technical virtuosity he displayed was utterly mesmerising and he produced a wonderful range of tone colours and dynamics from a beautiful guitar, made by a relatively unknown luthier in Madrid, whose name I have already forgotten. Carlos stopped from time to time to talk to us about some of the pieces that he was playing and made many witty observations in the process. All in all an evening of wonderful music and a fitting way in which to celebrate our Society’s 30th Anniversary.

At my request, Paul Brown kindly did the introductions and closing words as our only surviving founder member, for which I am grateful to him.

 A lot of careful planning and hard work went into last night’s recital, which was a great success. I am very grateful to the Executive for their input and I am very sorry that illness prevented Andrew and Fran from attending.

Steve, please thank Naomi for helping you to produce a superb souvenir programme and thank you for handling the financial matters so efficiently.

Shirley, there are not enough words to express our thanks for your handling of the ticket applications and allocations, as well as for all your help on the day. And the good thing was that you managed to get to SEE and HEAR the concert.....it was poor old Andrew's turn to miss out this year !! Wonder who it will miss out next year??

Denis Stockton.

By the way if anyone has any photos from the concert, please email them to me so I can add them to the blog site adn the news letter.

Update: The luthier that made Carlos's guitar was Juan Menduiña, (Madrid- http:// www.sistemamenduina.es/