High Low Duo: Ravel & Bartók
Sono Luminus

Cameron Greider, who performs interpretations of Ravel's Ma Mère l'Oye and Bartók's 44 Duos for 2 Violins with fellow guitarist Jack Petruzzelli, offers a critical distinction in describing the duo's approach: Ravel & Bartók doesn't present “rock versions of classical works”; instead, High Low Duo uses “the palette of sounds the electric guitar offers to re-orchestrate them, while still doing justice to the composers' dynamics and nuances.” Their homages to the original material capture their essence through circumspect use of harmony and counterpoint, the result interpretations that are respectful but not overly reverential. Using electric guitars only, Greider and Petruzzelli reimagine the works in ways that enable them to be heard with fresh ears.

That the duo cite Chet Atkins and Les Paul as inspirations rather than, say, Julian Bream and Andrés Segovia says much about the slant they bring to the material. Further to that, Greider and Petruzzelli don't bring backgrounds grounded in classical music to the project but rather rock, blues, country, and folk. Whereas the former's played with Joan Baez, Natalie Merchant, Sean Lennon, P.M. Dawn, Freedy Johnston, and Rufus Wainwright, the latter's worked with Patti Smith, Ian Hunter, Joan Osborne, Sara Bareilles, and Wainwright too. Greider and Petruzzelli also bring ample touring and production credits to the partnership.

Along their many travels, a shared interest in classical music crystallized, leading Greider to return to school and study music theory, piano, composition, and conducting at the Mannes conservatory. The idea of combining that burgeoning interest with their guitar playing was a natural next step for the two. They weren't trained as classical guitarists, however, which means that their way into the music couldn't help but be personal. Of the two works performed, it's Ravel's that presumably involved more work, simply because Greider and Petruzzelli had to figure out how to reduce the composer's luscious orchestral arrangement to one for two instruments. I'm guessing that as Bartok's was already scored for two voices the translation process was more straightforward.

Ma Mère l'Oye is no less beautiful in this new rendering as it is in its symphonic form. The guitarists retain the entrancement of “Pavane de la belle au bois dormant” and “Le jardin féerique” in distilling their haunting tone and graceful lilt into delicate tapestries of interweaving lines. Listeners familiar with the orchestral arrangement will marvel at how skifully the duo translate the wealth of detail in the original into a compact form. Greider and Petruzzelli are resourceful too in using harmonics and different parts of the fretboard to simulate specific effects in Ravel's writing. In “Laideronnette” and elsewhere, the two seamlessly move between lead and support roles, with one voicing the melody first and the other doing so thereafter. Even a single listen reveals that the arrangements were methodically and meticulously worked out by the pair.

A change in style is immediately apparent when the five selections from Ravel's work are followed by six of Bartok's forty-four duos. They're darker overall, even if each reflects the spirit intimated by its title. Whereas a sombre, even downcast character informs “Bankodas (Sorrow),” “Fairy Tale” exudes a sort of starry-eyed wonder and innocence. “Harvest Song” distances itself from the others in merging aggressively twanging gestures and e-bow-like voicings, and “Mosquito Dance,” well, dances nimbly for its blink-and-you'll-miss-it forty-three seconds.

November 2021