Music Reviews

Feb 3, 2001 - Nassler & Schneider on Nassler & Schneider at the Pioneer

By Jack Neal

There were really two concerts to ponder at the Pioneer Center Saturday night (2/3/2001). The marvelous playing of duo guitarists Jorg Nassler and Sivio Schneider and the compositions, since there were none other on the program, of Nassler and Schneider.

Playing here under the auspices of the Washoe County Community Concerts Association there's no question that these two guitarists are master artists. Their stunning techniques, never a flaw and absolutely assured, and perfect sense of ensemble make them very special in anyone's world of music.

And world of music is exactly where they are. It's not just guitaring that's their business, it's enhanced guitaring. The rhythmic slapping of their guitars, the light stroking of miniature wind chimes, the tapping of various pieces of wood and other such enrichments of their music were used to great advantage and with much subtlety. Add the fact that Nassler, 40, and Schneider, 32, are men of their time - albeit European men of Dresden - who blend an exotic mix of New Age, jazz and classic Segovian styles into one and the expectations for unique guitar concertizing is high.

The Nassler and Schneider charm and involvement in depth with their art would indicate a distinct lack of conceit. There is a conceit, however, in playing only one's own music. Mozart and Beethoven got away with such self promotion. Can these new chaps on the block get away with it?

Well, only partly.

A further point, the pre-CD and tape eras of Mozart and Beethoven did not allow for the infomercials many of today's concerts, including Nassler and Schneider's, have become. As printed in the program: "Nassler and Schneider will be announcing the release of (and, of course, playing mostly only from) their latest CD at tonight's concert." Should audiences be subjected to such blatantly commercial concertizing?

Beyond being put off by the notion there is no other music an audience wants to hear and that it should also be purchased at intermission for constant re-hearing, it takes a while to fathom what it is one has become a captive to hearing. There's a lot of sameness to their music, although the same can also be said of Mozart and Beethoven. But it's the kind of sameness that separates the men from the boys. I found the first half of the Nassler and Schneider concert mesmerizing, not so much as in thought provoking as in mood soothing music for meditation.

That's not to say the writing of Nassler and Schneider is without merit. Much of it is. And, undoubtedly, upon further hearing most of it might be. First hearings are notorious for being inconclusive.

"Choral 390" by Nassler off Reflections was transfixing in the way a Bach Chorale is transfixing and it was so lovingly played as to make it irresistible. Nassler's "Love Song for a Raven" was haunting and quite gorgeous. As the name implies, Schneider's "Pina Colada" has all the chutzpah one might expect from a with-it young man traveling the world. And so it went, the titles - "Danza," "Farewell," "Favela," "El Pais Grande," "Footwork," and so forth - revealing the intentions of two gifted men expressing themselves in the abstractions of the mellifluous sounds we call music.

At the moment the concert concluded, some fourteen pieces later, there was pleasure to found in all that was heard but for the moment, it's my guess (and my feeling), the audience (and I) had heard quite enough. That's the risk of playing only one's own music.

Next up for Washoe County Community Concerts is the Gus Giordano Jazz Dance Chicago on February 22 (2001) at the Pioneer Center for the Performing Arts, 100 South Virginia Street, Reno. For information call 775-786-7300.