A Musical Review of Musician Martha Masters

April 18, 2002 I attended a concert at the Stella Boyle Smith concert Hall where Martha Masters performed her pieces using a guitar. The compositions performed by Masters were Lute Suite I by J. S. Bach, La Source du Lyson, Op. 47 by Napoleon Coste, Milonga del Angel by Astor Piazzolla, Verano Porteno also by Astor Piazzolla, Theme, varie et finale by Manuel Maria Ponce, Drei Tentos by Hanz Werner Henze, and Sonata by Joaquin Turina.

Although I am not an expert musician, I feel that Masters gave an excellent, energy filled performance. She is a musician who definitely feels the music. What I liked the most is that she cared enough about the compositions to give the audience background information of the composition and composer of each piece. Her concert was a great example of program music.

In La Source du Lyson, Op. 47 by Napoleon Coste, the melody reminded me of a lullaby. It was composed in Rondo form and the texture was monophonic. Masters impressed me with her ability to play several chords at one time at a fast pace without error. In this piece the audience heard the progression of these fast paced chords followed by much consonance and little dissonance.

There was not a great range of dynamics. In fact, the guitar could barely be heard at times. I wasn’t sure if this was because of the sound system or simply because the guitar does not offer a wide range of dynamics. Also, the tone color did not change throughout.

I found the arrangement of the program to be very interesting in the way of providing variation by using compositions from the Baroque, Romantic, Latter Romantic, and Twentieth Centuries. The balance of the program suggests to me Masters enjoys the music from the Romantic period and twentieth centuries the most because she plays them the most throughout her performance.

I believe the majority of the audience liked Masters’ performance. I thought she was wonderful. I loved the way she felt the music. She was attractive and graceful as well.

“Bravo”