Israeli fans of guitar music - from classical and Flamenco to jazz and contemporary - had plenty to cheer about over the course of the three-day International Guitar Festival held last month.
This was the third annual festival hosted by Tzavta in Tel Aviv – although last year’s took place with the audiences watching the performances via Zoom, and not in person.
The 2021 festival featured a wide range of genres of guitar music, from classical and folk to jazz and flamenco. Because of the pandemic situation, performances of artists from abroad were curtailed, leaving the stage for more Israelis – especially young ones – to showcase their talent.
The festivals spanned three evenings, with two performances per night, such that concertgoers did not have to choose between options. The once exception was on the first night, when there was a conflict because three concerts were scheduled in two time slots. This was a great pity, because we were forced to choose between two performances we wished to see, thus missing out on Cuban-Austrian classical guitarist Marco Tamayo.
In the end, we were able to see two of the three shows we wanted. First was Tablao Flamenco, an ensemble featuring completely homegrown Israeli talent: three male musicians – two guitarists and one vocalist – and three female dancers. Their performance was enthralling, and the 70-minute show was over much too soon.
The final performance of the festival turned out to be the undisputed highlight: David Broza, who needs no introduction to Israeli audiences, introducing his new album, being performed for the first time before a live audience. The album, en Casa Limon, took Broza several years to write and marks quite a departure for him, since it is entirely instrumental.
Broza and his acoustic guitar took the stage together with accompanying musicians with whom he recorded in the Casa Limon studios of Madrid, Spain (hence the name of the album). The additional instruments were guitar, bass, percussion, flute and accordion.
Broza introduced each piece before playing it, filling in plenty of contextual background. As the concert progressed, everyone could see – and feel – how moving it was for Broza to be performing in person again after a long absence imposed by the pandemic – and especially to be bringing to a live audience his labor of love for the first time.