For this month’s CGC Academy Member Spotlight we’re featuring longtime member Bruce Donehower. Bruce was one of the earliest members of CGC and has been involved in so much of what’s been going on at CGC over the last several years. Below is a video of Bruce playing “Romanza” by Robert Schumann, arranged by Francisco Tárrega (sorry for the desync between the audio and video).
Bruce “retired” to the classical guitar in 2014 after his wife said he couldn’t bring a piano into the house and that if he wanted to do music he had to play guitar again. He quit playing classical guitar completely for a little more than 20 years prior to the return. Bruce found CGC at that time and connected with Simon. He participated in both Guitorberfests and the first CGC Summer School. His goals right now are to relearn the old repertoire that he once knew but forgot; to learn new pieces; and to learn to record and make better videos for friends and family. The Schumann piece is one that he worked on with Simon in 2017 at the CGC Summer School.
This transcription by Tárrega actually was quite difficult to track down because it is located in the middle of a longer piece (and was misprinted in earlier editions as having been from a different work by Schumann). This little romanza comes from Robert Schumann’s “Novelleten” (Op. 21) for solo piano and is found in two of the seven sections from No. 1 in F Major (this section appears twice in that piece: in the second section in F Major, and then again at the end in A Major, the key Tárrega uses for his transcription). Tárrega added the (quite appropriate!) title “Romanza.” Here’s a stunning performance of the whole piece by Claudio Arrau. – Dave Belcher
Beautifully played Bruce. Lovely sound from such a simple recording setup :)
Thank you so much for sharing your work, Bruce. There were so many special moments in this piece. Keep up the great work!
Very beautifully done, Bruce. My goal is to be able to play as well after a while.
A bit of trivia: this same piece was the opening selection of Julian Bream’s first public recital, at Cheltenham, England, 17 February 1947. Bream also performed it four months later as part of his first BBC broadcast.
Wonderful playing Bruce! Thank you for this beautiful expression.
Your body language always conveys how deeply you feel the music Bruce, and that sensitivity shines through in your music making. Wonderful!
Thanks for sharing this beautiful music with us Bruce.
a pleasure to hear you playing this ‘Romanza’.
Beautifully played Bruce; you get a great sound–very resonant in the upper registers of the guitar which makes the Romanza so attractive.
Beautiful playing and I love the mood you create with this music Bruce. Thank you to Simon for putting a spotlight on Bruce!
Beautifully played!
So expressively played – absolutely beautiful.
Beautiful!
Wow! Bruce, that was REALLY nice.
Armando
Beautiful, Bruce. Thank you for sharing.
Lynda
Bruce, Thank you to your wife for encouraging you to return to classical guitar (even if you wanted a piano). This is beautiful.
Martha
So rich! So dark! I love it. Thank you Bruce.
Very gentle and beautiful, Bruce! Thank you! And Dave, I love the historic notes!
Beautifully played Bruce, totally engaging. Thank you for sharing your playing, and I think your wife is a very wise woman, to steer you back to the guitar. You have a natural feel for the instrument, enjoy many happy hours rediscovering your old pieces in your retirement.
Best wishes,
Marg.
Bravo Bruce! I hope i can play like that one day.
Thank you, everyone, for your kind and supportive comments. I’m glad you enjoyed the music. Just as an aside, the guitar I’m playing here, the Cordoba C10, cracked hugely on my last trip to Portland, Oregon — despite being in a Visesnut case. I know some folks are interested in anecdotes about travel with guitar. I’ve always had good experiences, and I’ve traveled with this guitar many a time, to Asia and to Europe and across the US — no problem. But this time — whoa! I have to run it over to the local luthier to see if it’s cost effective to repair. But even with the huge crack, it sounded just fine and I played it for the family in Portland. Not sure what I’m going to take to Endicott yet. By the way, the Visesnut case is undamaged.
— Bruce