Search - Stepan Rak, Vladimir Mikulka :: Voces de profundis

Vladimir Mikulka Plays Stepan Rak

Redgecko | USA | 02/01/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Voces de Profundis was inspired by the Hitchcock film Psycho. The composer, Stepan Rak, uses the guitar's widest possible vocabulary of effects here and even uses a spoon to produce ethereal sounds from the strings. Other devices include scraping the strings with finger nails, passages in harmonics, trills high on the fingerboard, partial pressure chords where the fingers barely hold down the strings as well as many other special effects. The result is an exciting piece of music that is modern yet is held together as a unified whole. Interestingly, this version of Voces Profundis, here played by Vladimir Mikulka, is only 12 minutes long, whereas, the original played by Stepan Rak, is 17 minutes in length. The Homenaje a Tarrega is also an exciting piece that makes extensive use of portamento and tremolo effects to suggest the music of the great Francisco Tarrega. My favorite piece, however, is The Last Disco which has a haunting melody to relate the murder of a young girl in a night club. The Last Disco, as well as Voces de Profundis are on a par with The Prince's Toys by Nikita Koshkin for being two of the finest programmatic pieces in the guitar's repertoire.



Here is a collection of interesting pieces by a composer that isn't recorded as often as he should be played by a guitarist noted for his mastery of the guitar's special effects. As far as I know, these pieces, except for Voces de Profundis, are recorded no where else.



53 minutes of fun. Highly recommended.

"