Assured Playing Marks Guitar Competition

Guitar competitions are probably as grueling on the performers as any other kind. But for listeners who value music over ritual, events such as the marathon finals of the 1999 Stotsenberg International Classical Guitar Competition, held Sunday evening at Smothers Theatre of Pepperdine University, can be a lot of fun, particularly when the repertory is freewheeling repertory and there’s a uniformly high level of technical wizardry.

The first prize of $10,000 and a Pepperdine recital next season--look for it--went to Denis Azabagic from Bosnia-Herzegovina. Born in 1972, he is already a much-decorated veteran of the competition wars, and his experience and poise stood him in good stead as concentration-breaking floods of late arrivals were seated throughout his program.

His control and assurance were such that he could make impressionistic color and understatement the fulcrum of Leo Brouwer’s “El Decameron Negro,” a work usually mined for bravura display. He glided with equal elegance through Rodrigo’s “Invocacion y Danza” and the sly little “Tango de la Casada Infiel” of Vicente Asencio.

Brazilian Alieksey Vianna took second place, playing Ginastera’s landmark Sonata with virtuosity of the more florid sort--indeed, his guitar seemed at perilous risk from the uninhibited vehemence with which he attacked percussive effects. He opened with Sergio Assad’s three-movement “Aquarela,” a strong and evocative piece but possibly too close to the Ginastera in style and spirit for best results in a competition.

Frenchman Emmanuel Sacquepey was the third-place winner, with the most conventional program of all--familiar showpieces by Sor, Barrios, Piazzolla and Tarrega. He played all with power, speed and clarity, but rather stiffly and in undifferentiated style.

Fourth place went to Englishman Graham Devine, playing Maurice Ohana’s Tiento, three pieces by Pujol and also the Ginastera Sonata, in a clean and eloquent interpretation a world away from Vianna’s exuberant violence. American Evan Hirschelman took fifth place with two fantasias by Daniel Kellner, a pair of Brouwer etudes and “The Libra Sonatine” by Roland Dyens, all but portions of the Dyens sounding remote and calculated.