Sigi Schwab - Rondo a Tre

When Sigi Schwab steps on stage the molecules in the room rearrange themselves. He is easily the most versatile German guitarist of the day. Beaming, contagiously cheerful, he casts an eye over the audience, briefly checks the equipment, and picks up the guitar. Guillermo Marchena comes on more seriously, and Freddie Santiago is full of energy. The joy of the music sweeps everything along with it. There are stories here to be heard, voices, pictures, landscapes, seascapes, spaces emerging and transforming themselves. These are paintings. The way the different temperaments complement each other is fantastic: Sigi Schwab, behind whose virtuoso abilities hides philosophical fantasy with nearly boundless sounding breadth, also has a profound knowledge of the music of other cultures. Guillermo Marchena is restrained and sometimes almost lyrical with casual, mischievous embellishments. Freddie Santiago is full of élan and love of the theatrical; the other two are never safe from his musical pranks.