Holy Trinity Church, Sheffield
Saturday, 28th September 2024
I will start with a confession, which is that, long ago I took guitar lessons for two years and only learnt how to play the A chord and the A chord badly. This blatant lack of talent has ensured that I have always admired anyone who can make a noise with the instrument that doesn’t sound like an angry cat scratching at a tent’s guy rope. But over the years I have come to appreciate that there are different levels of skill and those that reach the summit of talent are few and far between.
Nick Fletcher is one of those who can not only play the guitar and, if you’ll excuse the cliché, make it sing, he can make it speak to the heart and caress the soul. I have seen him playing in the John Hackett Band where he had always proved his worth in a Prog Rock setting but at the concert at Holy Trinity Church he truly showed his virtuosity.
It would best be described as a guitar recital rather than a concert as it was just him playing classical music, but the lack of electricity running through his instrument did nothing to diminish my enjoyment. A mixture of his own, and other’s guitar, compositions that showed just how versatile the instrument, and Nick, truly are. Starting off with the haunting A Voice from the Past, from his Shadow Lands album, he demonstrated that the guitar can do more than rock music.
The setting helped to add to the ambience and as he went on to skillfully play works by such guitar master composers as Francisco Tarrega and Carlo Domenicon. I was transported to faraway places, of the mind, where Spanish guitars fill the air as I sip red wine and watch the sunsets.
Although each piece of music was transcendent the most moving, to me, were his own composition’s A voice from the Past & Dark Waters and J.S. Bach’s Sarabande & Double. Each note making it feel like he was at one with his instrument and making me wish that I had learnt how to play more than just the afore mentioned chord.
Whether you like classical music, or are yet to give it a try, I can certainly recommend that you go out of your way to see one of Nick’s solo guitar recitals or listen to one of his solo albums. I am sure that, like me, you’ll be impressed and have a great evening.
[Nick Fletcher kindly agreed to talk with TPA’s Darren Walker – you can read the full interview HERE]
SETLIST
A Voice From The Past (Nick Fletcher)
Don Perez Friere (A.B. Mangore)
Lagrima (Francisco Tarrega)
Prelude in G (Francisco Tarrega)
Marieta (Francisco Tarrega)
Dark Waters (Nick Fletcher)
The Turn Of The Tide (Nick Fletcher)
Sarabande & Double (J.S. Bach)
Julia Florida (A.B. Mangore)
~ Interval
Suite del Recuerdo (Jose Luis Merlin)
Lake Kawaguchi (Nick Fletcher)
Koyunbaba Suite (Carlo Domeniconi)
The Gilded Cage (Nick Fletcher)
~ Encore:
Candobe in Mi (Máximo Diego Pujol)
MUSICIAN
Nick Fletcher – Classical Guitar