Day One: Concert Jaques Stotzem
One of the strong aspects of the Twenthe Guitar Festival is its versatility, besides the classical guitar, other guitar disciplines are on stage as well. This year the finger-style guitar was on, with its prominent representative Jacques Stotzem from the Belgian Verviers.
The city of Verviers still calls memories with me. When I was twelve years old we were on the way back home from a holiday and we passed through the eastern part of Belgium, north east of Liége. It was dinner time, but there was no restaurant to be found on the road. At a certain time we entered Verviers, quite a gloomy place in my memories. It was hard to find your way with al those signs Toute Directions -Choose whatever Road you Like- but finally we came to the a bridge across the river Vesder with a fish and chips stand on it.
We were happy untill we actually started to eat: in Belgium they use real potatoes for the chips, they are no French Fries as we expected. You could bend those chips around your finger. It was a real culture shock, the reason why I still remember Verviers.
Back to the music. Finger-style guitars -also called finger-picking after the mini plectra (picks) the guitarist uses on his thumb and fingers- is mainly known with the gerenal public because of players like Tommy Emanuel.
Many years ago I have tried to learn finger-picking via blues- and ragtime pieces by Huub Holthuis and not to be forgotten Huiswaarts (Homeward Bound) by Harry Sacksioni. In the end it proved hardly successful, it was quite difficult to break free from the classical playing styles.
Some time ago I had watched a DVD of one of Tommy Emanuel's concerts. Dazzling virtuosity, show and bravura, but in my opinion far to many notes and too little of a melody. Bearing in mind this impression, I was completely surpised by Jaques Stotzem!
The first thing which struck me was his sound. It was solid, but pleasantly warm with a great dynamic range. He must have a top class amplifier and pickup system to achieve this sound. Even if he aimed the sound hole of the guitar at his speakers, there was no trace of acoustical feedback. Comparing this to the sound of Harry Sacksioni last year, I guess Stotzem was far better off.
Then the most important, his play. He gave the melody the first fiddle, and all virtuosity was aimed at the music, it was no goal in itself. This gave his pieces a musical balance which you hear far less from players like Emanuel.
He alternated rough pieces (like a number of arrangements of Jimi Hendrix pieces) with quiet and subtly played ballads, turning his complete program into a pleasant balance between exitement and relaxation. It was groovy listening!
At a certain time he played some songs from his latest project with arrangements of pop songs, called Catch the Spirit.. One particular title stroke me.
Jacques Stotzem played his version of With or Without You by U2. He started with the arpeggio section in harmonics, which represented the rythm guitar, subsequently playing bass, accompaniment and melody of the song. Absolutely wonderful!
I am no real fan of U2 myself, but this song gives me goose bumps in some way. Just watch the lines of text (and what's between) of the refrain:
With or without you,
With or without you,
I cant live,
With or without you,
Stotzem hit this charge of music and lyrics so precisely (now I am writing it, I sense it again) that my thoughts were going out to everyone who is forced one way or another to go on alone, because going on together is no longer possible. Either by choice, or unexpectedly, or after a long time which still is too short to understand and cope with the consequences. Automatically you thoughts are with people you know, which are confronted with this at the very moment.
In brief: this is a concert, I will remember!