What the guitar suffers from is not so much a shortage of worthwhile repertory as one of players who will venture to use what there is and, among its own aficionados, listeners who do not believe that music ends with romanticism; its twentieth-century life cannot be sustained by simply proliferating recordings of Britten, Walton, Henze and a few others, even though every musical medium has its 'pops'. Nor can an instrument live in soloistic isolation from ensemble situations—apart from a handful of nineteenth-century chamber works and a sprinkling of concertos. David Starobin is one of the courageous few who know this and is both equipped and prepared to do something about it. The extent of his involvement is reflected in the fact that seven of the 13 works (all dating from the 1970s and 1980s) are dedicated to Starobin; of the remainder; four—Henze, Takemitsu, Northcott and Lennon (Ghostfires)—are in their original forms and only two—Del Tredici and Sondheim—appear arrangements. None of the composers is a guitarist.
The most conservative of the guitar solos is David del Tredici's aptly innocent Acrostic Song, adapted from a soprano-and-orchestra setting of Lewis Carroll's acrostic 'A. P. L.' (the real 'Alice') poem; the others are of sterner stuff. William Bland's Fantasy-Homage to Tomas Luis de Victoria, one of a set of six pieces, quotes from its eponym's O vos Omnes in tremolando and deploys a variety of idiomatic effects, including the use of quarter-tones, in depicting the ''search for ecstasy''. Equally strong and effective are Carter's restless Changes, Northcott's brilliantly written Fantasia for guitar, inspirationally based on fantasias by Mozart (K397) and Beethoven (Op. 77) but couched in harsher language, and Babbitt's Composition for guitar, a dodecaphonic work that is better heard before the sleeve-note is read—''... linear polyphony of pitch, rhytmic, dynamic, timbral and registral levels...''—earnest academicism that is more likely to intimidate than to assist the average listener. Kolb makes gentler use of the 12 tones in her delightful Three Lullabies, a little atonal humming in the last proclaims that father is taking a turn of duty. No information is given on J. A. Lennon (John anthony, not the John Lennon), nor is his piece any kind of 'fandango'; its declared ''ethnic elements'' seem in very short supply but it is cohesive and pleasant in a rather inconsequential way.
Both the natural compatibility of three plucked-string instruments and their timbral (it must be catching!) differences contribute to the brittle magic of Henze's three pieces—that of Takemitsu's Toward the Sea is more delicate and introverted than the titles suggest. The vocal works show the guitar in supporting roles that are diversely different from its 'traditional' one of subservience; they range from the sombre piety of Wuorinen's Psalm 39, through the transparent, sometimes acrid textures of Lennon's Ghostfires (poems by James Joyce) and bittersweetness of Kolb's Songs Before an Adieu, to the smart sophistication of Sunday Song Set, taken from Sondheim's musical Sunday in the Park with George.
The performances are impressive in their vitality and sensitivitiy, recorded with great fidelity, excellent balance and sharp presence. The guitar needs exposure of this kind and its devotees should have all three of these records if their musical pretensions are to be taken seriously; others, maybe still to be convinced, may start with any one of them.'